Ttbe  nintversttB  of  Cbtcago 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF 
LOCAL  LIFE  IN  THE  CITY  OF 
COLUMBUS,  OHIO 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY 
OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  ARTS  AND  LITERATURE 
IN  CANDIDACY  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF 
DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT  OF  SOCIOLOGY  AND 
DEPARTMENT  OF  POLITICAL  ECONOMY 


BY 


RODERICK  DUNCAN  McKENZIE 


HN80 

cmis 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  UXINOIS 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Division-  . H.WSO 

. ,.c.7  n  is 


Ube  xaniversitB  o(  dbtcago 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF 
LOCAL  LIFE  IN  THE  CITY  OF 
COLUMBUS,  OHIO 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY 
OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  ARTS  AND  LITERATURE 
IN  CANDIDACY  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF 
DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT  OF  SOCIOLOGY  AND 
DEPARTMENT  OF  POLITICAL  ECONOMY 


RODERICK  DUNCAN  McKENZIE 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


Copyright  1923  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Published  February  1923 


Composed  and  Printed  By 
The  University  of  Chicago  Press 
Chicago,  Illinois,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 


Several  years  have  elapsed  since  this  study  was  completed. 
The  only  reason  for  reprinting  now  in  book  form  is  to  meet  the 
Doctor’s  dissertation  requirements  of  the  University  of  Chicago. 
The  modern  city  is  in  rapid  process  of  change.  The  findings 
revealed  in  this  study  may  now  have  but  historic  significance. 
The  method  employed,  however,  may  possess  elements  of  more 
permanent  value. 

It  is  almost  beside  the  point  to  say  that  I  am  much  indebted 
to  the  many  students  and  friends  in  Columbus  who  so  generously 
assisted  in  the  field  work  connected  with  this  study.  I  am,  how¬ 
ever,  particularly  obligated  to  my  good  friend  and  teacher,  Dr. 
Robert  E.  Park,  for  his  patient  and  able  guidance  throughout  the 
entire  work. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/neighborhoodstud00rncke_0 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Part  I.  Local  Life  within  the  City 


PAGE 

I.  City  Structure . 145 

II.  Mobility . 156 

III.  The  Neighborhood . 344 

IV.  Experiments  in  Neighborhood  Organization  .  .  .  .354 

Part  II.  An  Analysis  of  a  Disintegrated  City 

Neighborhood 

V.  Description  of  Neighborhood . 486 

VI.  Mobility  of  Neighborhood . 492 

VII.  Economic  Status  and  Occupational  Life . 496 

VIII.  The  Home  and  Domestic  Life . 501 

IX.  Religion  and  the  Church . 588 

X.  Leisure-Time  Activities . 595 

XI.  Education  and  Juvenile  Delinquency . 605 

XII.  Neighborhood  Sentiment . 607 

Part  III.  The  Rehabilitation  of  the  Neighborhood 

XIII.  The  Neighborhood  as  the  Unit  of  Political  and  Social 

Reform . 780 

XIV.  Conclusions . 796 


•  • 

vn 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


MAP  PAGE 

I.  Racial,  National,  and  Industrial  Localities  ....  148 

II.  Economic  Areas  of  City . 153 

III.  Mobility  of  Population . 163 

IV.  Homes  of  Dependent  Families  in  Columbus  .  .  facing  166 

V.  Homes  of  Delinquent  Children . facing  166 

VI.  Complete  Map  of  Neighborhood . 487 

VII.  Homes  of  Dependent  Families  in  Neighborhood  .  .  .  500 

VIII.  Distribution  of  Members  of  a  Neighborhood  Church  .  .  590 

IX.  Distribution  of  Members  of  a  Down-Town  Church  .  .591 

X.  Distribution  of  Neighborhood  Churches  and  Missions.  .  592 

XI.  Neighborhood  Saloons,  Pool-Rooms,  and  Picture  Theaters  .  598 

XII.  Neighborhood  Play  Spaces . 604 

XIII.  Homes  of  Neighborhood  Delinquent  Children  .  .  .  607 

XIV.  City  Vote  on  Prohibition . 789 

XV.  City  Vote  on  Woman’s  Suffrage . 790 

XVI.  City  Vote  on  Employment  of  Women  in  Saloons  .  .  .791 

GRAPH 

I.  a)  Ward  Distribution  of  Votes . 793 

b )  Economic  Status  of  Wards . 793 

II.  Precinct  Distribution  of  Votes . 794 

III.  Comparative  Homogeneity  of  Wards  2  and  3  .  797 


ix 


, 


LIST  OF  TABLES 


TABLE 

I.  Relation  between  Ward  Stability  and  Economic  Status  . 

II.  Ward  Variations  in  Stability,  Dependency,  and  Juvenile 
Delinquency . 

III.  Age  and  Sex  Distribution  of  Population  .... 

IV.  Place  of  Birth  of  White  Adults . 

V.  Location  of  Colored  Families . 

VI.  Home  Ownership  by  Streets . 

VII.  Comparative  Mobility  of  Two  City  Neighborhoods  . 

VIII.  Rents  per  Month  in  Relation  to  Size  of  Dwelling  . 

IX.  Occupations  of  Male  Heads  of  Households  .... 

X,  XI.  Neighborhood  Industries . 

XII.  Artificial  Lighting  of  Dwellings . 

XIII.  Household  Conveniences . 

XIV.  Rooms  per  Dwelling  in  Relation  to  Size  of  Household  . 

XV.  Age  Distribution  of  Male  Heads  of  Households. 

XVI.  Children  per  Household,  Eighteen  Years  and  Under 

XVII.  Parental  Status  of  Heads  of  Households  .... 
XVIII.  Religious  Affiliations . 

XIX.  Summary  of  Leading  Facts  Regarding  Neighborhood 
Churches  . 

XX.  Possession  of  Musical  Instruments . 

XXI.  Extent  of  Social  Visiting . 

XXII.  Types  of  Leisure-Time  Activities  of  Boys  .... 
XXIII.  Types  of  Leisure-Time  Activities  of  Girls  .... 

XXIV.  Percentage  of  Non-school  Attendance  by  Wards. 

XXV.  Average  Deviations  of  Ward  Votes  from  General  Average 
for  Columbus . 

XXVI.  Average  Deviation  of  Precinct  Votes  from  the  Averages 
for  Different  Wards . 


PAGE 

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xi 


Reprinted  from 

The  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  XXVII,  September,  1921; 
November,  1921;  January,  1922;  March,  1922;  and  May,  1922 


THE  AMERICAN 


JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


Volume  XXVII  SEPTEMBER  1921  Number  2 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  IN 
THE  CITY  OF  COLUMBUS,  OHIO 


r.  d.  mckenzie 

University  of  Washington 


ABSTRACT 

City  structure.  Cities  are  usually  classified  according  to  size.  They  may  be 
also  classified  according  to  the  nature  and  organization  of  their  leading  industries. 
Land  valuations  in  the  forms  of  business,  industrial,  and  residential  utilities,  largely 
determine  the  structure  of  the  modern  city.  Every  city  has  its  central  business 
district,  located  near  the  geographical  center  of  the  city.  Sub-business  districts  tend 
to  form  at  street-car  crossings  and  around  neighborhood  institutions.  The  basic 
industries  are  usually  located  around  the  outskirts  of  the  city’s  corporation,  while 
manufacturing  establishments  employing  women  are  usually  located  near  the  center 
of  the  city.  Real  estate  values  distribute  a  city’s  population  into  various  residential 
sections  of  different  economic  and  social  status.  Racial  and  nationality  bonds  tend 
to  subgroup  the  population  within  the  various  economic  areas.  Mobility  of  popula¬ 
tion.  The  term  implies  the  extent  to  which  the  individual  varies  his  environment, 
either  by  change  of  residence  or  by  use  of  secondary  means  of  communication.  The 
mobility  of  modern  life  facilitates  disorganization  of  traditional  group  and  institutional 
structures.  It  is  a  measure  of  progress,  but  at  the  same  time  aggravates  many  of 
our  political  and  social  problems.  Change  of  residence  is  much  more  frequent  among 
the  lower  economic  classes  in  Columbus  than  among  the  well-to-do.  But  dependence 
upon  local  institutions  is  considerably  greater  in  the  poorer  neighborhoods  than  in 
the  better  residential  sections,  on  account  of  inability  to  use  secondary  means  of 
communication. 


PART  I.  LOCAL  LIFE  WITHIN  THE  CITY 

I.  CITY  STRUCTURE 

Columbus  is  a  city  of  about  210,000  inhabitants,  according  to 
the  latest  census.  There  are  forty-three  other  cities  in  the  United 
States,  which,  from  the  point  of  view  of  population,  fall  in  the  same 


145 


146 


TEE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


class.1  Of  these  cities  eleven  are  in  the  New  England  states,  eight 
in  the  Middle  Atlantic,  seven  in  the  East  North  Central,  two  in 
the  West  North  Central,  two  in  the  Mountain,  and  five  in  the 
Pacific  states. 

Inasmuch  as  the  modern  city  is  largely  an  industrial  institu¬ 
tion  it  is  important  to  know  the  nature  of  a  city’s  leading  industries. 
Eighteen  of  the  cities  in  question  have  for  their  main  industry  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  iron  and  steel  products,  eight  have  textiles  and  clothing, 
four  lumber,  three  boots  and  shoes,  three  baking  and  confection¬ 
ery,  two  publishing  and  printing,  two  preserving  and  canning,  one 
rubber  goods,  one  furniture,  one  jewelry,  and  one  cotton-seed  oil.2 

These  cities  may  again  be  classified  according  to  the  relative 
importance  of  their  leading  industries.  Nine  of  the  forty-four 
cities  of  this  group  are  characterized  by  the  national  importance 
of  their  major  industries.3  For  example,  Patterson,  New  Jersey, 
Fall  River,  Lowell,  and  Lawrence,  located  in  Massachusetts, 
belong  to  the  textile  and  clothing  group  and  have  their  industries 
organized  on  a  nation-wide  sale  of  products.  Similarly,  Akron 
with  its  rubber  goods,  Grand  Rapids  with  its  furniture,  Youngstown 
with  its  iron  and  steel  products,  represent  the  type  of  city  with  a 
single  dominant  industry  organized  on  a  national  scale.  The 
majority  of  the  cities  in  this  group,  however,  are  not  characterized 
by  a  single  outstanding  industry  but  possess  numerous  small 
industries  of  approximately  the  same  size,  the  larger  part  of  their 
business  being  limited  to  local  trading  areas.  Cities  with  this 
type  of  industrial  life  may  be  called  diversified  cities.4  Columbus 

1  The  estimated  population  of  Columbus  for  1916  was  209,722.  It  belongs  to 
the  third  group  of  American  cities,  those  having  a  population  of  100,000  to  300,000. 
There  was  a  total  of  forty-four  cities  in  this  group  in  1916.  General  Statistics  of 
Cities  (1916). 

2  This  classification  was  made  from  the  Census  of  Manufactures,  Vol.  I  (1914). 
and  is  based  on  census  returns  (1910).  Undoubtedly  in  several  instances  the  leading 
industry  of  1910  is  not  the  leading  industry  of  today.  The  industry  employing  the 
greatest  total  number  of  employees  was  taken  as  the  leading  industry. 

3  Cities  in  which  the  major  industry  employed  more  than  twice  as  many  workers 
as  the  industry  next  in  order,  and  more  than  the  total  listed  for  the  classification, 
“all  other  industries”  I  have  classified  here,  as  “single-industry  cities.” 

4  See  C.  A.  Beard,  American  City  Government  (1912),  pp.  26-29,  for  a  classifica¬ 
tion  of  types  of  American  municipalities. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  147 


belongs  in  this  latter  class.1  It  has  three  relatively  important 
types  of  industry:  foundry  and  machine-shop  products;  the 
construction  of  cars,  locomotives,  and  heavy  machinery,  and  the 
manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes. 

Most  of  our  great  cities  are  circular  or  star  shaped  unless 
directly  modified  by  geographical  peculiarities.  This  structure 
is  due  to  the  inherent  nature  of  city  development,  when  uncontrolled 
by  conscious  design.  “  Whatever  the  type  of  city,  growth  consists 
of  movement  away  from  the  point  of  origin,  and  is  of  two  kinds; 
central,  or  in  all  directions,  and  axial,  or  along  the  water  courses, 
railroads  and  turnpikes  which  form  the  framework  of  cities.”2 

Columbus  is  shaped  like  a  Greek  cross.  Its  two  leading 
thoroughfares,  Broad  and  High  streets,  intersect  at  right  angles 
near  the  junction  of  the  Scioto  and  Olentangy  rivers.  High  Street, 
the  business  backbone  of  the  city,  runs  north  and  south  for  a 
distance  of  about  nine  miles  within  the  corporation  limits.  Broad 

Street,  on  the  other  hand,  runs  east  and  west,  or  nearly  so,  and 

% 

forms  the  arm  of  the  cross.  This  street  comprises  part  of  the  old 
Lincoln  Highway.  Topography  has  had  something  to  do  in  de¬ 
termining  the  rough  outlines  of  the  city’s  structure.  The  junction 
of  the  two  rivers  just  mentioned  furnishes  the  basis  for  the  crosslike 
appearance  of  the  city.  Expansion  has  followed  the  lines  of  least 
resistance  along  the  south  side  of  the  Scioto  River  and  the  east 
bank  of  the  Olentangy. 

The  distribution  of  business,  industry,  and  population  within 
the  confines  of  any  large  city  is  determined  by  the  operation  of 
economic  forces  which  tend  to  produce  certain  similarities  of 
structure  with  respect  to  all  big  cities. 

Generally  speaking,  the  utility  of  land  in  the  city  falls  into  three  classes: 
business  utility,  industrial  utility,  and  residential  utility.  The  areas  devoted 
to  these  purposes  are  separated  by  more  or  less  definite  lines  and  are  themselves 

1  Columbus,  like  almost  every  other  city  of  its  size,  manufactures  articles  which 
are  sold  throughout  the  entire  country,  also  in  foreign  lands,  but  Columbus  is  not 
dominated  by  any  particular  industry,  nor  does  it  have  the  habit  of  advertising  in  any 
of  the  national  journals  such  as  the  Post ,  Literary  Digest,  etc. 

2  Richard  M.  Hurd,  Principles  of  City  Land  Values  ( Record  and  Guide,  IQ03). 
Adapted  as  a  reading  in  Marshall,  Wright,  and  Field,  Materials  for  the  Study  of  Ele¬ 
mentary  Economics  (1913),  p.  620. 


148 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


subdivided  according  to  the  specific  nature  or  class  of  use  for  each  purpose. 
Business  area  for  instance  lies  generally  at  the  focus  of  local  transportation  routes 
or  in  other  words  at  the  point  of  intersection  of  the  strongest  lines  of  local 


MAP  OF 

COLUM  BUS,  OHIO 

SHOWING 

RACIAL,  NATIONAL,  AND 
INDUSTRIAL  LOCALITIES 

918 

Scale  of  Miles 


++V 


0*4+0 


3  - 


.  Industrial  Areas 
..German  Neighborhood 
...Scattered  Negro  Families 
...Solid  Negro  Sections 
..Jewish  Sections 
...Italian  ■■ 
...Roumanian  Section 
...Hungarian  n 
...Organized  Street 
..Settlement  House 
....Ward  Boundaries 
...Ward  Numbers 


Map  I 


travel.  This  point  is  very  often  at  the  geographical  center  of  the  city  which 
can  be  reached  from  all  sections  of  the  city  with  equal  facility.  The  industrial 
area  on  the  other  hand  has  no  one  definite  location,  as  has  the  business  area. 
Depending  largely  on  railroad  facilities,  it  soon  becomes  scattered  throughout 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE 


all  sections  of  the  city,  forcing  its  way  from  all  directions  in  wedges  almost  to 
the  business  heart.  There  is  generally  no  control  and  no  concentration  other 
than  that  offered  by  the  railroad  lines.  To  residential  purposes  is  devoted 
the  rest  of  the  land  in  the  city.  This  is  generally  of  three  classes:  fine  residen¬ 
tial  area;  general  residential  area;  and  tenement  area.  The  first  of  these 
preempts  those  sections  of  the  city  which  have  the  greatest  number  of  pleasing 
and  natural  advantages.  The  second,  in  general,  lies  along  the  thoroughfares 
and  highways  which  have  the  best  transportation  facilities  and  also  along  such 
railroads  as  provide  suburban  transportation.  The  third  class,  the  tenement 
areas,  are  generally  found  in  the  industrial  regions  and  in  the  pockets  or  areas 
that  lie  between  railroad  lines  and  close  to  the  center.1 

The  central  business  section  of  Columbus,  as  indicated  on 
Map  I,  is  located  near  the  geographical  center  of  the  city.  It 
comprises  an  area  of  about  half  a  mile  in  length  and  three  blocks 
in  width,  the  central  part  of  which  is  the  junction  of  the  two  streets 
already  mentioned.  This  is  the  corner  of  the  State  House  grounds, 
also  the  site  of  the  city’s  leading  hotel.  One  does  not  feel  that  he 
is  “down  town”  until  he  reaches  this  corner.2 

Immediately  surrounding  the  central  business  section  of  most 
cities  is  to  be  found  a  more  or  less  disintegrated  area,  comprising 
wholesale  establishments,  low  class  hotels  and  apartment  houses, 
second-hand  stores,  and  cheap  places  of  amusement.  This  region 
is  usually  inhabitated  by  a  migratory  class  of  people,  such  as  day 
laborers,  immigrants,  and  negroes.  It  also  tends  to  become  the 
rendezvous  of  the  vicious  and  criminal  classes. 

The  factors  distributing  values  over  the  city’s  area  by  attracting  or  repuls¬ 
ing  various  utilities,  are,  in  the  case  of  residences,  absence  of  nuisances,  good 
approach,  favorable  transportation  facilities,  moderate  elevation,  and  parks; 

1  E.  H.  Bennett,  “Planning  for  Distribution  of  Industries,”dwwa/5  of  the  American 
Academy  (January,  1914),  pp.  217-18. 

2  Referring  to  the  defects  of  the  round  city  John  P.  Fox,  Secretary  of  the  Transit 
Committee,  City  Club  of  New  York,  writes,  “The  round  city,  as  found  in  America, 
tends  to  have  a  congested  business  center,  with  high  buildings,  high  land  values,  high 
rents,  congested  streets  and  similar  faults.  It  tends  to  require  riding  to  and  from 
work,  especially  if  one  wishes  to  live  anywhere  near  the  country.  It  requires  too 
many  radiating  streets  to  reach  surrounding  territory,  using  more  land  than  necessary. 
It  makes  it  impossible  to  build  one  adequate  rapid  transit  line  to  serve  all  the  central 
district  and  the  residence  sections.  It  buries  most  people  in  its  midst  too  far  from 
the  country,  the  latter  being  reached  only  by  riding,  which  many  poor  people  cannot 
afford  to  do.” — “Relation  between  Transit  and  Housing,”  Annals  of  the  American 
Academy  (January,  1914),  p.  160. 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


150 

in  the  case  of  retail  shops,  passing  street  traffic,  with  a  tendency  toward 
proximity  to  their  customer’s  residences;  in  the  case  of  retail  wholesalers  and 
light  manufacturing,  proximity  to  the  retail  stores  which  are  their  customers; 
in  the  case  of  heavy  wholesaling  or  manufacturing,  proximity  to  transportation; 
and  in  the  case  of  public  or  semi-public  buildings,  for  historical  reasons, 
proximity  to  the  old  business  center;  the  land  that  is  finally  left  being  filled  in 
with  mingled  cheap  utilities,  parasites  of  the  stronger  utilities,  which  give  a 
low  earning  power  to  land  otherwise  valueless.1 

Such  a  disintegrated  area  is  quite  conspicuous  in  the  city  of 
Columbus.  Surrounding  the  main  business  section  on  all  sides 
for  a  distance  of  from  one  to  a  dozen  blocks  there  is  a  black  and 
grimy  area  unfit  for  human  habitation.  Here  cheap  boarding 
houses  and  questionable  hotels  are  wedged  in  between  large  ware¬ 
houses  and  wholesale  establishments.  This  region  is  very  largely 
given  over  to  colored  people  and  poor  whites.2  Prior  to  the  sup¬ 
pression  of  segregated  vice  in  the  city  a  considerable  part  of  this 
section  was  occupied  by  keepers  of  immoral  resorts.  The  eastern 
part  of  this  district  contained,  in  the  early  days,  the  homes  of  many 
of  the  wealthiest  residents  of  the  city.  However,  with  the  expan¬ 
sion  of  business  and  the  development  of  modern  means  of  transit, 
the  well-to-do  moved  farther  east  along  Broad  Street,  leaving  their 
now  obsolete  homes  to  be  used  as  places  of  business  or  to  be  sub¬ 
divided  into  cheap  apartments  for  the  poor. 

Most  of  our  cities,  due  to  their  rapid  growth,  have  districts  that  are  going 
through  a  transition  from  resident  districts  to  factory  and  business  districts. 
Rents  from  dwellings  are  decreasing,  while  land  value  is  greatly  increasing. 
The  owners  of  many  of  these  homes,  foreseeing  the  opportunity  to  sell  the 
land  for  business  purposes  in  one  year  or  ten  years,  will  not  repair  or  improve 
their  houses,  because  they  argue  it  would  be  a  waste  to  put  more  money  in 
the  houses  that  will  in  themselves  bring  no  return  when  selling  the  land.3 

The  primary  industries  of  most  cities  tend  to  be  located  near 
the  outskirts  of  the  city’s  corporation,  along  water  fronts  and 

1  Richard  M.  Hurd,  op.  cit.,  p.  620. 

3  In  his  study  of  4,500  employees  in  factories  located  in  Norwood  and  Oakley, 
suburbs  of  Cincinnati,  Graham  Romeyn  Taylor  found  that  “nearly  half,  or  44.68 
per  cent,  live  in  thickly  populated  parts  of  down-town  Cincinnati,  five  miles  from 
their  work.” — Satellite  Cities ,  p.  97. 

3  Mildred  Chadsey,  “The  Old  House  as  a  Social  Problem,”  Annals  of  the  American 
Academy  (January,  1914),  p.  87. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  151 

railroad  tracks.  Smaller  industries,  especially  those  employing 
women  and  unskilled  labor,  seek  low-priced  areas  near  street-car 
lines  and  so  may  be  located  in  almost  any  part  of  the  city.  Around 
the  primary  industries  independent  communities  develop  which 
have  a  life  of  their  own  distinct  from  the  rest  of  the  city,  such,  for 
example,  as  the  stockyard  district  of  Chicago.  Subcommunities 
of  another  type,  due  to  the  difference  of  population  selection,  form 
around  any  important  center,  such  as  a  university,  park,  school, 
or  other  public  institution. 

Transfer  points,  owing  to  concentration  of  daily  streams  of  people  and 
consequent  opportunity  for  shops,  are  strategic  points  in  a  city’s  area,  creat¬ 
ing  business  subcenters,  whose  prospects  of  increasing  values  are  limited  only 
by  the  number  and  quality  of  the  people  likely  to  utilize  them.  As  examples, 
note  the  marked  effect  of  transfers  in  New  York  at  Broadway  and  34th  Street, 
Madison  Avenue  and  59th  Street,  Lexington  Avenue  and  59th  Street;  also 
in  New  Haven  at  Chapel  and  Church  streets;  in  Denver  at  15th  and  Lawrence 
streets;  and  many  transfer  points  in  the  outlying  districts  of  Chicago.1 

Columbus  has  three  significant  industrial  communities.  One 
is  located  in  the  twelfth  ward  and  contains  the  plants  of  the  Jeffrey 
Manufacturing  Company,  which  employs  about  4,000  men,  and 
the  High  Malleable  Company,  which  employs  about  700  men.  The 
second  industrial  area  lies  along  the  Scioto  River,  extending  from 
First  Avenue  down  to  the  center  of  the  city.  In  this  district  are 
the  plants  of  the  Lamneck  Furnace  Company,  the  Nye  and  Sons 
Stove  Company,  and  the  Hulse  Furniture  Company.  The  third 
industrial  section  is  found  in  the  south  end  of  Columbus.  Here 
are  the  large  steel  industries  of  the  city,  including  the  Buckeye 
Steel  Casting  Company,  the  Columbus  Branch  of  the  American 
Rolling  Mill  Company,  the  Seagraves  Manufacturing  Company, 
and  others.  In  addition  to  these  manufacturing  areas  the  shops 
of  the  different  railroads  form  other  industrial  communities.  The 
Hocking  Valley  Shops  are  located  in  a  bend  of  the  Scioto  River 
in  the  western  part  of  Ward  2,  making  this  section  of  the  ward 
much  less  stable  than  the  remaining  German  part  of  it  which  lies 
east  of  High  Street.  Similarly  the  large  Pennsly vania  Shops, 
located  a  short  distance  northeast  of  the  United  States  barracks, 
account  for  the  mixed  foreign  and  negro  section  found  there. 


1  Richard  M.  Hurd,  op.  cit.,  p.  622. 


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THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


Each  of  these  industrial  areas  has  a  more  or  less  distinctive 
community  life  of  its  own.  The  residents  of  these  communities 
are  very  largely  people  who  work  in  the  nearby  industries.  While 
their  economic  status  is  that  of  the  day-laboring  class  still  their 
population  elements  comprise  a  mixture  of  practically  all  racial 
and  national  stocks.  There  is  a  distinct  tendency,  as  may  be  seen 
by  Map  I,  for  the  different  racial  and  linguistic  groups  to  form 
little  colonies  within  these  industrial  communities.  This  is  espe¬ 
cially  noticeable  with  respect  to  the  industrial  area  surrounding 
the  South  Columbus  Steel  Works.  This  is  a  motley  district, 
practically  every  street  represents  a  different  racial  or  national 
aggregation. 

The  population  of  any  city  is  distributed  according  to  economic 
status  into  residential  areas  of  various  rental  or  real  estate  values. 
Family  income  tends  to  segregate  the  population  of  a  city  into 
different  economic  districts  much  the  same  as  the  price  of  tickets 
at  a  theater  divides  the  audience  into  several  different  strata  of 
economic  and  social  distinction. 

The  main  consideration  in  the  individual  selection  of  a  residence  location 
is  the  desire  to  live  among  one’s  friends  or  among  those  whom  one  desires  to 
have  for  friends;  for  which  reason  there  will  be  as  many  residence  neighbor¬ 
hoods  in  the  city  as  there  are  social  strata.1 

In  order  to  bring  into  relief  the  various  levels  of  economic 
distribution  of  the  population  of  Columbus  a  measure  of  compara¬ 
tive  economic  status  was  sought.  It  was  finally  decided  to  take 
the  average  per  elector  tax  returns  on  household  furniture  as  a 
standard  of  rating.  Household  furniture  returns  are  listed  from 
the  home  address  rather  than  from  the  down- town  office,  and, 
therefore,  furnish  a  territorial  distribution  of  this  sort  of  property. 
The  returns  were  calculated  by  wards  and  the  totals  divided  by 
the  number  of  registered  electors  for  the  same  year  in  each  ward.2 

The  measure  of  economic  status  here  adopted  is  not  without 
its  shortcomings.  In  the  first  place  the  ward  is  not  a  homogeneous 
economic  area.  It  frequently  includes  the  extremes  of  wealth  and 

1  Richard  M.  Hurd,  op.  cit .,  p.  621. 

2  The  ward  totals  were  divided  by  the  number  of  registered  electors  rather  than 
by  the  number  of  householders,  inasmuch  as  each  householder  is  allowed  one  hundred 
dollars  tax  exemption  on  furniture,  and,  therefore,  in  the  lower  economic  regions 
only  a  small  percentage  of  the  families  made  returns  at  all. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  153 


poverty.  This  is  true,  for  example,  with  respect  to  the  sixth  ward, 
the  eastern  end  of  which  contains  some  of  the  most  luxuriant 
homes  in  the  city,  while  the  western  corner  represents  a  broken- 
down  colored  section.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  classification  of 


Map  II 


wards,  as  determined  by  this  form  of  measurement,  corresponds 
almost  precisely  with  the  common-sense  rating  as  based  on  general 
observation.  The  foregoing  map  (Map  II)  indicates  the  results  of 
this  study. 


154 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


The  first  impression  gained  from  an  examination  of  this  map 
will  be  the  striking  difference  in  economic  status  of  the  various 
wards  in  the  city.  Wards  4  and  5  with  their  economic  status  of 
$202  and  $219  respectively,  stand  in  bold  contrast  to  Wards  9  and 
10  whose  per  elector  status  is  less  than  one  quarter  as  great.  The 
latter  wards,  as  may  be  seen  by  Map  III  (p.  163)  are  also  the  most 
mobile  sections  of  the  city.  Wards  15  and  16  comprise  the  univer¬ 
sity  district  and  represent  the  middle  class  type  of  home.  The  rela¬ 
tively  low  rating  of  Ward  n  is  due  to  the  presence  of  a  large 
negro  colony  located  near  its  southern  border,  also  to  a  disinte¬ 
grated  neighborhood  lying  north  of  the  State  Hospital  for  the 
Insane.  On  the  other  hand,  Ward  1  is  probably  rated  a  bit  too 
high.  This  is  a  foreign  locality  surrounding  the  South  Columbus 
Steel  Works  and  our  measure  of  economic  status  applies  merely 
to  citizens. 

Racial  and  national  sentiments  tend  to  subgroup  the  popula¬ 
tion  of  the  different  economic  areas  of  a  city  into  more  intimate 
social  divisions.  “  Every  great  city  has  its  racial  colonies,  like  the 
Chinatowns  of  San  Francisco  and  New  York,  the  Little  Sicily  of 
Chicago,  and  various  other  less  pronounced  types.”1  Columbus 
has  several  such  racial  and  national  colonies,  each  with  a  more 
or  less  distinct  social  life  of  its  own. 

The  colored  population,2  as  may  be  noted  on  Map  I  (p.  148),  is, 
in  general,  distributed  around  the  periphery  of  the  main  business 
section,  along  the  river  flood  plains,  near  the  railroad  tracks,  and 
around  the  industrial  plants.  Most  of  Ward  9  is  inhabitated  by 
colored  people.  During  the  past  few  years  the  colored  families, 
especially  the  new  arrivals  from  the  South,  have  been  pushing 
their  way  out  into  Ward  14,  driving  the  Italians,  who  previously 
occupied  this  territory,  still  farther  north.  The  northern  boundary 
line  of  Ward  9,  Goodale  Street,  is  now  almost  entirely  inhabitated 

Robert  E.  Park,  “The  City:  Suggestions  for  the  Investigation  of  Human 
Behavior  in  the  City  Environment,”  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  XX,  582. 

2  In  1910  Columbus  had  a  colored  population  of  12,739,  which,  when  compared 
with  the  total  population  of  the  city,  constituted  at  that  time  a  higher  percentage  of 
negroes  than  was  to  be  found  in  any  other  city  in  the  state.  Moreover  this  number 
has  been  greatly  augmented  by  the  influx  of  negroes  from  the  South  during  the  past 
few  years. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE 


155 


by  negroes.  The  river  end  of  this  street,  together  with  the  imme¬ 
diately  surrounding  territory,  was  originally  known  as  “Fly 
Town,  ”  receiving  this  name  on  account  of  the  migratory  tendencies 
of  workers  employed  in  the  nearby  factories,  also  on  account  of  the 
lawlessness  of  the  place.  In  this  section  the  Godman  Guild  Social 
Settlement  House  is  located. 

The  largest  colored  community  in  the  city  lies  just  east  of  the 
central  business  district.  This  community  includes  practically 
all  of  Ward  7  with  the  exception  of  a  few  streets  on  which  are 
located  some  of  the  best  residences  in  the  city.  It  also  extends 
into  the  southwestern  corner  of  Ward  6,  the  eastern  half  of  Ward  8, 
and  the  western  part  of  Ward  4.  The  central  part  of  this  colored 
community  lies  north  of  Long  Street  between  Seventeenth  Street 
and  Taylor  Avenue.  This  region  is  undisputably  surrendered  to 
negroes.  It  is  a  city  of  blacks  within  the  larger  community.  Here 
are  found  colored  policemen,  colored  hotels,  stores,  churches,  pool- 
rooms,  picture  theaters,  as  well  as  separate  colored  schools.  The 
colored  people  have  their  own  local  organizations  such  as  lodges, 
war-relief  clubs,  and  a  political  organization  called  “The  Negro 
Republican  League.’ ’ 

Of  the  minor  negro  colonies  indicated  on  Map  I  attention 
should  be  called  to  the  one  in  the  extreme  south  end  of  the  city, 
adjoining  the  steel  plants;  to  the  colored  neighborhood  in  the 
eleventh  ward,  reference  to  which  will  be  made  later;  to  the  colored 
district  surrounding  the  Jeffrey  Manufacturing  Plant  in  Ward  12, 
and  to  the  smaller  colored  localities  adjoining  the  university  campus. 

Columbus  has  one  large  Jewish  colony,  lying  a  few  blocks 
east  of  the  southern  end  of  the  main  business  section  of  the  city. 
This  district  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Rich  Street,  on  the  east 
by  Parsons  Avenue,  on  the  south  by  Livingston  Avenue,  and  on 
the  west  by  Grant  Street.  In  this  quadrangle,  comprising  about 
twelve  city  blocks,  there  is  located  the  Jewish  Schonthal  Commu¬ 
nity  House,  Temple  Israel,  the  Agudas,  Achim  Synagogue,  Tiffereth 
Israel  Synagogue,  the  Beth  Jacob  Synagogue,  the  Ahavath  Sholen 
Synagogue,  and  the  Jewish  Progress  Club.  The  area  described, 
however,  is  not  inhabitated  entirely  by  Hebrews.  The  population 
is  a  mixture  of  colored  and  Jewish  people.  This  is  the  home  of 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


156 

the  Orthodox  Jews  of  Columbus.1  The  so-called  “ Reformed” 
Jews,  which  include,  as  a  rule,  the  Jews  of  German  nationality, 
are  dispersed  along  the  eastern  section  of  the  city  in  the  better 
residential  district  between  Broad  Street  and  Bryden  Road. 

The  renowned  German  section2  of  the  city  extends  along  South 
High  Street  from  Livingston  Avenue  as  far  south  as  Washington 
Park,  bounded  on  the  east  by  Parsons  Avenue,  and  on  the  west 
by  the  Hocking  Valley  tracks.  It  comprises  an  area  of  about  a 
square  mile  and  falls,  for  the  most  part,  within  the  second  ward. 
Many  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  old  German  families  reside 
along  High  Street  south  of  Livingston  Avenue.  Practically  all 
of  these  families  own  their  homes  and  many  of  them  have  resided 
here  for  over  thirty  years.  The  whole  community,  just  outlined, 
is  fundamentally  German.  The  dwellings  represent  the  typical 
German  village  structure,  built  close  up  to  the  sidewalk,  with 
garden  space  and  chicken  house  in  the  rear.  Many  of  the  alleys 
are  lined  with  small  residences.  Frequently  the  owner  of  a  fine 
home  will  have  a  small  building  on  the  rear  of  his  lot  occupied  by 
a  tenant  family.  The  shops,  churches,  and  other  public  places 
of  this  district  are  owned  and  operated  by  Germans,  and  the 
German  language'  is  used  almost  exclusively. 

Lying  immediately  south  of  this  German  neighborhood  and 
extending  to  the  southern  limits  of  the  city  is  a  mixed  foreign 
district,  inhabitated  by  Austrians,  Lithuanians,  Hungarians,  and 
Italians. 

II.  MOBILITY 

“The  city  is  the  spectroscope  of  society;  it  analyzes  and  sifts 
the  population,  separating  and  classifying  the  diverse  elements.”3 

Mobility  of  population  may  be  considered  under  three  heads: 
change  of  residence  from  one  community  to  another,  change  of 

xThis  is  the  historic  Jewish  neighborhood  of  Columbus  and  is  noted  for  the 
solidarity  of  its  local  life.  Graham  Taylor  says,  “.  .  .  .  The  family-like  fellowships 
persistently  growing  out  of  and  around  the  Jewish  synagogue,  which  is  the  most 
ancient  type  of  the  neighborhood  still  surviving,  perpetuate  the  spirit  of  neighborliness 
and  give  it  more  or  less  flexible,  but  long  accepted,  forms  of  development.” — Religion 
in  Social  Action  (1913),  p.  149. 

2  According  to  the  1910  Census,  Columbus  had  5,722  foreign-born  Germans,  which 
was  the  largest  single  foreign-born  nationality  in  the  city  ( Thirteenth  Census  of  United 
States,  III,  428). 

3  A.  F.  Weber,  The  Growth  of  Cities  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (1899),  p.  442. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE 


T57 


residence  from  one  neighborhood  to  another  within  the  community, 
and  mobility  without  change  of  residence.1  The  official  sources  of 
information  on  these  subjects  are  very  inadequate.  The  census 
reports  furnish  data  concerning  nationality  and  interstate  migra¬ 
tions,2  but  aside  from  that  we  know  nothing  about  the  movements 
of  people  from  one  community  to  another,3  much  less  the  move¬ 
ments  that  take  place  within  the  community  itself. 

That  the  mobility  of  modern  life  is  intimately  connected  with 
many  of  our  social  problems  there  is  general  consensus  of  opinion. 
Assuming  that  a  reasonable  amount  of  mobility  is  both  inevitable 
and  desirable,  nevertheless  it  is  unquestionably  true  that  the 
excessive  population  movements  of  modern  times  are  fraught  with 
many  serious  consequences. 

Perhaps  the  most  obvious  effect  of  the  mobility  of  the  popula¬ 
tion  within  a  city  is  the  striking  instability  of  local  life.  Neighbor¬ 
hoods  are  in  a  constant  process  of  change;  some  improving,  others 
deteriorating.  Changes  in  incomes  and  rents  are  almost 
immediately  registered  in  change  of  family  domicile.  Strengthened 
economic  status  usually  implies  the  movement  of  a  family  from  a 
poorer  to  a  better  neighborhood,  while  weakened  economic  status 
means  that  the  family  must  retire  to  a  cheaper  and  less  desirable 
district.4  So  in  every  city  we  have  two  general  types  of  neighbor- 

1  Robert  E.  Park  says,  ....  “Mobility  in  an  individual  or  in  a  population  is 
measured,  not  merely  by  change  of  location,  but  rather  by  the  number  and  variety  of 
the  stimulations  to  which  the  individual  or  the  population  responds.  Mobility 
depends,  not  merely  upon  transportation,  but  upon  communication.” — American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  XX,  589. 

2  The  1910  Census  records  the  percentage  of  the  population  of  each  state  born 
within  the  state.  This  gives  a  general  impression  of  the  relative  mobility  of  the  dif¬ 
ferent  states.  The  percentage  of  people  born  within  the  state  in  which  they  were 
counted  varies  from  94.7  for  North  Carolina  to  21.8  for  Wyoming.  Ohio  is  above 
the  average  in  stability  with  a  percentage  of  native  born  of  74.4  ( Thirteenth  Census 
of  United  States,  I,  712). 

3  See  Bucher’s  Industrial  Evolution  (Wickett  translation),  chap,  x,  for  an  interest¬ 
ing  study  of  internal  migrations  of  population  in  Germany.  He  shows  that  of  the 
population  of  Prussia,  in  1880,  57.6  per  cent  were  born  in  the  municipality  where 
enumerated  (p.  354),  and  for  Bavaria  (1871)  61.2  per  cent  (p.  355). 

4  “A  study  of  five  hundred  families  who,  in  1913,  moved  from  one  home  to  another 
has  clearly  shown  that  in  63  per  cent  of  the  cases  poorer  accommodations  were  secured 
because  of  a  recent  change  in  the  family  income  which  caused  a  necessary  change  in 
the  amount  of  rent  that  could  be  spared.” — Carol  Aronovici,  Housing  and  the  Housing 
Problem  (1920),  p.  20. 


158 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


hood;  the  one  whose  inhabitants  have  located  there  on  the  basis 
of  personal  choice,  and  the  other  whose  inhabitants  have  located 
there  as  the  result  of  economic  compulsion.  The  former,  as  we 
shall  see  later,  contains  the  possibilities  for  the  development  of 
neighborhood  sentiment  and  organization,  while  the  latter  lacks 
the  necessary  elements  for  reconstruction. 

Rapid  community  turnover  also  plays  havoc  with  local  stand¬ 
ards  and  neighborhood  mores.  It  is  impossible  to  have  an  efficient 
local  opinion  in  a  neighborhood  where  the  people  are  in  constant 
move.  It  has  repeatedly  been  affirmed  by  students  of  society  that 
the  decay  of  local  standards  is  a  pertinent  cause  of  moral  laxness 
and  disorderliness. 

We  are  dependent  for  moral  health  upon  intimate  association  with  a 
group  of  some  sort,  usually  consisting  of  our  family,  neighbors,  and  other 
friends.  It  is  the  interchange  of  ideas  and  feelings  with  this  group,  and  a 
constant  sense  of  its  opinions  that  makes  standards  of  right  and  wrong  seem 

real  to  us . When  we  move  to  town,  or  go  to  another  country,  or  get 

into  a  different  social  class,  or  adopt  ideas  that  alienate  us  from  our  former 
associates,  it  is  not  at  all  certain  that  we  shall  form  new  relations  equally 
intimate  and  cogent  with  the  old.  A  common  result,  therefore,  is  a  partial 
moral  isolation  and  atrophy  of  moral  sense.  If  the  causes  of  change  are  at 
all  general  we  may  have  great  populations  made  up  largely  of  such  displaced 
units,  a  kind  of  “anarchy  of  spirits”  among  whom  there  is  no  ethos  or  settled 
system  of  moral  life  at  all,  only  a  confused  outbreak  of  impulses,  better  or 
worse.1 

The  flux  of  modern  life  also  intensifies  all  problems  connected 
with  government,  national,  state,  or  local.  The  fact  that  we  have 
a  residence  qualification  for  voting  leaves  an  increasingly  large 
number  every  year  of  disfranchised  citizens.  This  too  applies 
especially  to  a  class,  the  migrant  laborer,  which  has  no  other  means 
of  participation  in  social  control. 

Our  distinguished  critic,  James  Bryce,  drew  attention  years 
ago  to  the  relation  between  mobility  and  government. 

In  no  state  of  the  union  is  the  bulk  of  the  population  so  fixed  in  its  residence 
as  everywhere  in  Europe;  in  many  it  is  almost  nomadic.  Except  in  some  of 
the  stagnant  districts  of  the  South,  nobody  feels  rooted  to  the  soil.  Here 
today  and  gone  tomorrow,  he  cannot  readily  contract  habits  of  trustful  depend¬ 
ence  on  his  neighbors.  Community  of  interest,  or  of  belief  in  such  a  cause 


1  C.  H.  Cooley,  Social  Process,  pp.  1 80-81. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  159 


as  temperance,  or  protection  for  native  industry,  unites  him  for  a  time  with 
others  similarly  minded,  but  congenial  spirits  seldom  live  long  enough  together 
to  form  a  school  or  type  of  local  opinion  which  develops  strength  and  becomes 
a  proselytizing  force.  Perhaps  this  tends  to  prevent  the  growth  of  variety  of 
opinion.  When  a  man  arises  with  some  power  of  original  thought  in  politics, 
he  is  feeble  if  isolated,  and  is  depressed  by  his  insignificance,  whereas  if  he 
grows  up  in  a  favorable  soil  with  sympathetic  minds  around  him,  whom  he 
can  in  prolonged  intercourse  permeate  with  his  ideas,  he  learns  to  speak  with 
confidence  and  soars  on  the  wings  of  his  disciples.  One  who  considers  the 
variety  of  conditions  under  which  men  live  in  America  may  certainly  find 
ground  for  surprise  that  there  should  be  so  few  independent  schools  of  opinion. 

Students  of  municipal  government  are  constantly  calling 
attention  to  the  difficulty  of  creating  interest  in  municipal  affairs 
among  a  people  who  are  in  constant  move.2  Stability  of  residence, 
as  a  rule,  implies  home  ownership,  which  in  turn  gives  rise  to  local 
sentiment  and  interest  in  neighborhood  surroundings.  In  a  region 
where  the  population  is  continually  shifting  there  is  little  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  the  development  of  neighborhood  sentiment,  and  as  a 
result,  local  concerns  are  usually  left  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
It  is  hard  to  develop  interest  in  neighborhood  affairs  among  families 
who  are  the  while  conscious  of  the  temporary  nature  of  their 
domicile  within  the  district. 

The  problems  which  the  mobility  of  population  presents  to 
political  reformers  are  likewise  common  to  social  workers  in  other 
fields.  Organizations  dealing  with  delinquency  and  dependency 
are  hampered  in  their  efforts  by  the  frequent  movements  of  their 
“  cases.”3  Similarly  the  church,  trade  union,  and  other  voluntary 
forms  of  association  lose  in  their  efficiency  through  the  rapid  turn¬ 
over  of  their  local  membership  lists.4 

1  American  Commonwealth,  II  (1907),  289-90. 

2  Hart  ( Actual  Government,  pp.  210-11)  points  out  that  the  American  habit  of 
moving  is  an  important  cause  of  bad  city  government.  Goodwin  in  his  Municipal 
Government,  p.  26,  also  emphasizes  the  relation  of  population  movement  to  the  problem 
of  local  government. 

3  In  a  study  of  324  newly  “closed”  cases,  in  the  records  of  the  Social  Welfare 
League  of  Seattle,  it  was  found  that  the  average  length  of  time  the  families  were  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  organization  was  five  months;  and  the  average  number  of 
changes  of  residence  during  that  period  was  2.2.  Moreover,  45 . 8  per  cent  of  the  cases 
were  closed  because  the  family  had  moved  away  from  the  city. 

4  In  a  study  made  of  2,049  resignations  from  the  Seattle  Chamber  of  Commerce 
(June,  1917,  to  December,  1920),  Mr.  Suen  Chen,  a  student  in  sociology,  discovered 


160  THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 

In  considering  the  general  causes  of  the  present  mobility  of 
population  it  is  important  to  view  the  subject  from  both  its  psycho¬ 
logical  and  its  social  aspects.  Thomas  and  Znaniecki  have  grouped 
the  dominant  individual  wishes  or  desires  into  four  general  classes: 
“the  desire  for  recognition  or  status;  the  desire  for  safety  or 
security;  the  desire  for  power;  the  desire  for  new  experiences.”1 
It  is  of  course  obvious  that  the  relative  strength  of  these  different 
desires  varies  in  different  individuals  and  at  different  ages  in  the 
same  individual.  E.  L.  Thorndike  says,  “old  age,  femaleness, 
and  physical  weakness”  ....  seem  to  favor  “the  long  familiar 
physical  and  social  environment,”  while  “adolescence,  maleness, 
and  energy”2  seem  to  be  combined  with  the  roaming  disposition. 

Of  the  four  types  of  desires  just  mentioned  the  desires  for 
security  and  recognition  find  their  chief  satisfactions  in  the  soli¬ 
darity  and  intimacy  of  the  small  local  group;  while  the  desires  for 
power  and  new  experience  attain  their  fullest  fruition  in  a  wider 
social  milieu.  The  rigoristic  codes  of  the  small  stable  community 
have  never  afforded  adequate  satisfaction  to  the  human  impulses  of 
the  more  energetic  members  of  the  group.  The  solidarity  of  the 
primitive  neighborhood  group  was  undoubtedly,  to  a  greater 
extent,  the  product  of  a  hostile  external  environment  rather  than 
the  result  of  spontaneous  human  impulses.  As  Stuckenberg  says, 
“Frequently  the  inherent  qualities  of  men  have  less  power  to  unite 
than  the  desire  to  antagonize  what  is  averse  to  them . Preju¬ 

dice,  hatred,  and  opposition  are  powerful  factors  in  association.”3 

that  764  or  37.3  per  cent  of  those  resigning  had  been  members  of  the  organization 
less  than  one  year;  787  or  38.3  per  cent  had  been  members  more  than  one  year  but 
less  than  two  years;  328  or  16. 1  per  cent  had  been  members  more  than  two  years  but 
less  than  three  years;  while  the  remaining  170  or  8.1  per  cent  had  been  members 
three  years  or  more.  Moreover,  604  or  29.4  per  cent  of  the  total  number  resigning 
gave  as  their  reason  for  leaving  the  organization  change  of  residence  to  another  com¬ 
munity. 

The  present  membership  of  the  Seattle  Chamber  of  Commerce  (December,  1920) 
is  3,034;  of  this  number  634  or  20.9  per  cent  have  been  members  for  one  year  or  less; 
1,197  or  39.4  per  cent  have  been  members  for  two  years  or  less;  and  1,517  or  half  the 
total  number  have  been  members  for  three  years  or  less. 

1  The  Polish  Peasant  in  Europe  and  America  (1918),  I,  73. 

2  Original  Nature  of  Man,  I  (1913),  56. 

3  Sociology,  the  Science  of  Human  Society,  I,  86. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  161 

Adam  Smith  contrasts  the  strong  clan-feeling  which  still  in  the  eighteenth 
century  prevailed  among  the  Scotch  Highlanders  with  the  little  regard  felt  for 
remote  relatives  by  the  English,  and  observes  that  in  countries  where  the 
authority  of  the  law  is  not  sufficiently  strong  to  give  security  to  every  member 
of  the  State  the  different  branches  of  the  same  family  choose  to  live  in  the 
neighborhood  of  one  another,  their  association  being  frequently  necessary  for 
their  common  defence:  whereas  in  a  country  like  England,  where  the  authority 
of  the  law  was  well  established,  “the  descendants  of  the  same  family,  having 
no  such  motive  for  keeping  together,  naturally  separate  and  disperse,  as 
interest  or  inclination  may  direct.”1 

On  the  social  side  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  draw  attention  to 
the  leading  causes  of  intercommunity  migration.  The  sudden 
change  from  a  predominantly  agricultural  to  a  predominantly 
industrial  society  has  occasioned  a  mobility  of  life  unknown 
before.  As  long  as  the  soil  furnished  the  chief  basis  of  economic 
income  man  was  obliged  to  live  a  comparatively  stable  life  in  a 
fixed  and  definite  locality.  With  the  development  of  the  modern 
capitalistic  regime,  the  presence  of  the  individual  is  no  longer 
necessary  to  insure  the  productivity  and  security  of  his  property. 
He  may  now,  if  he  choses,  invest  his  savings  in  interest-bearing 
securities  which  require  neither  his  personal  presence  nor  his  atten¬ 
tion  to  insure  an  income.  He  is  thus  left  free  to  live,  if  he  so  desires, 
a  nomad  life.2  Of  course  all  classes  in  society  are  not  equally  free 
to  move  about.  The  middle-class  tradesman  and  many  of  the 
professional  groups  are  more  or  less  tied  to  definite  localities  by  the 
very  nature  of  their  work.  On  the  other  hand,  the  well-to-do  and 
the  day-laborer  are  free  to  move  almost  at  will. 

Our  modern  factory  system  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  present 
migratory  tendencies  of  the  wage-earning  class.  In  an  open  labor 
market  with  employers  competing  with  one  another  in  their 
demands  for  labor,  the  wage  earner  is  fast  becoming  a  sort  of 
tourist  who  spends  but  a  short  period  in  each  community  during 
his  trip  around  the  country. 

Seasonal  or  intermittent  occupations,  temporary  jobs,  commercial  depres¬ 
sions,  occasional  unemployment,  and  a  general  sense  of  the  lack  of  permanency 

1  E.  Westermarck,  Moral  Ideas,  II  (1908),  223. 

2  See  Godkin,  Problems  of  Modern  Democracy,  pp.  180  ff.,  for  a  brief  discussion 
of  this  subject. 


162 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


in  the  tenure  of  their  industrial  positions,  pull  settled  families  up  by  the  roots 
and  seldom  leave  them  long  enough  in  one  place  to  take  root  again.  Our 
manual  workers  are  more  and  more  transient.  Many  among  them  are  forced 
to  become  tramping  families.1 

Moreover,  change  of  residence  from  one  section  to  another 
within  the  community  is  quite  as  disturbing  to  neighborhood 
association  as  is  movement  from  one  community  to  another.  In 
order  to  get  an  idea  of  the  comparative  mobility  of  the  population 
of  the  various  local  areas  in  Columbus,  a  study  was  made  of  the 
changes  in  the  lists  of  the  registered  electors  during  the  period  of 
one  year.  The  records  of  each  year’s  registration  are  listed  by 
precincts  by  the  city’s  Board  of  Elections.  The  1917  list  of  names 
was  compared  with  the  1918  list,  and  the  percentage  of  names  per 
precinct  of  the  1917  list  that  reappeared  in  the  1918  list  was  taken  as 
a  measure  of  the  relative  stability  of  the  precinct.  For  example, 
if  a  certain  precinct  had  100  registered  electors  for  1917  and  only 
75  of  these  names  reappeared  in  the  1918  list  the  percentage 
stability  of  that  precinct  would  be  rated  as  75.  The  city  is  divided 
into  262  precincts,  each  of  which  comprises  about  two  or  three 
blocks.  The  average  registered  electorate  per  precinct  was,  in 
1918,  175.  From  this  small  geographical  unit  it  is  possible  to  get 
a  rather  intimate  knowledge  of  the  extent  of  local  mobility  of 
population. 

Taking  the  city  as  a  whole,  only  58.6  per  cent  of  the  registered 
electors  of  1917  re-registered  in  1918.  In  other  words,  of  the  quali¬ 
fied  voters  of  1917,  almost  one-half  failed  to  requalify  to  vote  in 
their  old  precincts  in  1918.  The  percentage  of  registration  of 
electors  varies  greatly,  of  course,  in  the  different  sections  of  the 
city,  precincts  ranging  from  31.0  per  cent  to  77.8  per  cent.  The 
most  mobile  precinct  is  located  in  Ward  9  near  the  Scioto  River, 
while  the  most  stable  precinct  lies  in  the  center  of  the  old  German 
neighborhood  in  the  northern  corner  of  Ward  1.  Map  III  gives  the 
results  of  such  tabulation  by  precincts  for  the  entire  city. 

This  map  gives  a  picture  of  the  relative  stability  of  different 
sections  of  the  city  when  judged  by  the  single  criterion  of  the 

1  Graham  Taylor,  Religion  in  Social  Action  (1913),  pp.  143-44. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  163 

re-registration  of  electors.  It  does  not  show  the  actual  extent  of 
shifting  of  population  within  any  particular  spot.  Failure  to 
re-register  is  not  definite  proof  that  the  elector  has  migrated  from 


MAP  OF 

COLU  M  BUS,  OH  10 

SHOWING 

MOBILITY  of  POPULATION 

BASED  ON 

CHANGES  of  RESIDENCE  of  ELECTORS 

ACCORDING  TO 

jyjgjl  CITY  VOTING  REGISTRATION  FOR  1YEAR  PERIOD 

1917-1918 


Percentages  of  Electors  of  1917 
who  re-registered  in  1 9 1 3. 


Less  than  50% 
50  to  60  % 
60%and  over. 


oi?  Neighborhood  ©  Settlement  House 


I  i  j  3  0 
I I I I _ L 


Scale  of  Miles 
I 


2 

i 


Map  III 


the  confines  of  his  precinct.  He  may  merely  have  omitted  to 
perform  this  privilege  of  citizenship.  On  the  other  hand,  move¬ 
ments  of  non-citizens  are  not  recorded  in  this  study.  But,  despite 


164 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


these  limitations,  I  believe  the  method  here  employed  furnishes 
an  approximately  true  picture  of  the  comparative  population 
movements  of  different  sections  of  the  city. 

It  is  quite  evident  from  this  map  that  the  down-town  section, 
including  the  main  business  area  and  its  immediately  surrounding 
territory,  is  by  far  the  most  mobile  part  of  the  city.  But  this  is 
to  be  expected,  considering  the  nature  of  this  section.  As  we  have 
already  seen,  most  of  the  people  living  near  the  business  center 
are  of  the  boarding-house  and  cheap  hotel  class.  The  more  stable 
parts  of  the  city  are  to  be  found,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  better 
residential  districts,  in  the  eastern,  northern,  and  western  ex¬ 
tremities  of  the  city.  The  large  German  neighborhood,  lying 
immediately  south  of  the  main  business  section,  practically  all 
falls  in  the  class  of  highest  stability,  while  the  industrial  area, 
located  farther  south  in  Ward  1,  comprises  one  of  the  most  mobile 
sections  of  Columbus. 

The  correlation  between  stability  and  economic  status  is  quite 
interesting.  For  ocular  demonstration  of  this  relationship  the 
reader  should  compare  Map  III,  page  163,  with  Map  II,  page  153. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  Map  III  is  constructed 
on  the  basis  of  a  small  unit,  the  precinct,  while  Map  II  is  based 
on  the  ward  as  the  unit.  Now  taking  the  ward  averages  for 
stability  and  comparing  them  with  the  ward  averages  for  economic 
status  we  get  the  result  shown  in  Table  I. 

This  table  shows,  in  general,  that  stability  varies  directly  with 
economic  status.  For  example,  Ward  9,  which  has  the  lowest 
economic  status  of  all  the  wards  in  the  city,  has  also  the  lowest 
re-registration  of  electors,  which  means  the  lowest  stability.  Like¬ 
wise,  Wards  8  and  12,  which  are  considerably  below  the  average 
in  economic  status,  are  also  below  the  average  in  stability.  On  the 
other  hand,  Wards  4,  5,  and  16  fall  considerably  above  the  average 
in  stability,  and  rank  high  in  economic  status.  Wards  2  and 
3  appear  to  be  exceptions;  they  have  high  stability  and  low 
economic  status.  But  as  we  have  already  seen  these  wards  contain 
the  large  stable  German  neighborhood,  the  residents  of  which,  while 
home  owners  and  relatively  prosperous,  maintain  a  lower  standard 
of  living  than  the  average  American  of  similar  economic  status. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  165 


Let  us  now  examine  the  relation  between  mobility,  dependency, 
and  juvenile  delinquency.  The  two  spot  maps  (IV  and  V)  facing 
page  166  show  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  official  cases 
of  dependency  and  juvenile  delinquency  for  a  one-year  period, 
May,  1918,  to  May,  1919.  As  might  be  expected  the  majority 
of  the  dependency  cases  are  segregated  in  the  low  economic  areas 
surrounding  the  central  business  district.  The  colored  cases  form 
conspicuous  groups  near  the  railroad  tracks  and  the  river,  also  in 
the  eastern  part  of  the  city  near  Franklin  Park. 

TABLE  I 

Relation  between  Ward  Stability  and  Economic  Status 


Ward 

Average 
Re-registration 
per  Ward 
(per  cent) 

Average 
Economic 
Status 
per  Ward 

9 . 

43-7 

$  34.II 

8 . 

44-4 

80  -55 

12 . 

50.6 

66.97 

15 . 

53-7 

147-25 

13 . 

57-7 

85.80 

14 . 

57-7 

70.87 

1 . 

60.4 

92.44 

10 . 

60.6 

54.66 

7 . 

60.6 

111 -55 

6 . 

61.9 

i39-3o 

2 . 

62.9 

67.56 

16 . 

63.1 

176.35 

11 . 

64.1 

85-39 

4 . 

65-3 

202.99 

5 . 

65.5 

219.89 

3 . 

66.0 

92. 72 

The  most  striking  feature  concerning  the  geographical  distribu¬ 
tion  of  juvenile  delinquency  is  the  rather  even  dispersion  of  cases 
throughout  the  entire  city.  Single  streets  or  individual  family 
groups  rather  than  neighborhoods  seem  to  form  the  nuclei  for  way¬ 
ward  children.  There  is,  apparently,  but  slight  correlation  between 
the  segregation  of  dependency  and  that  of  delinquency.  Table  II 
gives  more  exact  presentation  of  the  facts  recorded  in  Maps  IV 
and  V. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Wards  8,  9,  and  12,  which  comprise 
the  central  part  of  the  city,  and  which  rank  highest  in  mobility, 
also  rank  high  in  extent  of  both  dependency  and  delinquency;  while 


i66 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


Wards  4,  5,  15,  and  16  rank  high  in  stability  and  have  relatively 
little  dependency  or  delinquency.  However,  the  relation  between 
mobility  and  dependency  is  much  more  conspicuous  than  the  rela¬ 
tion  between  mobility  and  delinquency.  For  example,  Wards  13 
and  14  have  almost  average  stability  but  rank  highest  for  the  whole 
city  in  their  percentages  of  juvenile  delinquency.  These  two  wards 

TABLE  II 


Ward  Variations  in  Stability,  Dependency,  and  Juvenile  Delinquency 


Ward 

Number  of* 
Registered 
Voters 

FOR  1918 

Stability  t 

Cases  of 
Dependency^ 

Cases  of 
Delinquency 

No. 

Percentage 

No. 

Percentage 

9 . 

1757 

43-7 

82 

4.67 

27 

1-54 

8 . 

2225 

44.4 

75 

3-37 

26 

1. 17 

12 . 

2062 

50.6 

94 

4-56 

25 

1 . 21 

15 . 

2661 

53-7 

23 

.86 

12 

•45 

13 . 

3062 

57-7 

5i 

1 . 67 

49 

1 . 60 

14 . 

2344 

57-7 

58 

2.47 

39 

1 . 66 

1 . 

2950 

60.4 

58 

1.79 

45 

i-53 

10 . 

2477 

60.6 

82 

3-3i 

35 

1. 41 

7 . 

2721 

60.6 

44 

1.62 

23 

•85 

6 . 

2995 

61.9 

65 

2.17 

32 

1.07 

2 . 

2496 

62.9 

57 

2. 28 

32 

1 . 28 

16 . 

4540 

63.1 

24 

•5i 

18 

•39 

11 . 

3171 

64. 1 

53 

1 . 67 

28 

.88 

4 . 

2884 

65-3 

56 

1.94 

19 

.66 

5 . 

3477 

65-5 

26 

•74 

12 

•35 

3 . 

3635 

66.0 

45 

1 . 24 

34 

•94 

Total . 

45,457 

893 

456 

Average  for  city 

58.6 

1.97 

1 .00 

. 

*  The  number  of  registered  electors  furnishes  our  only  clue  to  the  ward  populations  of  the  city,  as 
the  ward  boundaries  have  been  modified  since  the  1910  census  was  taken. 

t  The  term  “stability”  implies  here,  as  formerly,  the  percentage  of  the  1917  electors  who  re-registered 
in  the  same  precincts  in  1918. 

i  The  cases  of  dependency  and  delinquency  here  recorded  are  known  in  the  organizations  concerned 
as  “official  cases,”  that  is,  they  are  the  more  permanent  and  serious  cases  with  which  the  organizations 
have  to  deal. 


happen  to  include  industrial  areas  and  have  comparatively  large 
colored  and  immigrant  populations. 

While  our  method  of  measuring  mobility  does  not  indicate 
whether  the  movements  of  families  are  from  one  community  to 
another  or  from  one  neighborhood  to  another  within  the  community, 
still  a  few  sample  cases  seem  to  show  the  latter  type  of  movement 
predominates.  For  instance,  in  Ward  9,  out  of  the  total  743 


MAP  OF 

COLUMBUS,  OHIO 

SHOWING  LOCATION  OF 

HOMES  OF  DEPENDENTS 

UNDER  OFFICIAL  SUPERVISION  OF 

THE  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES 

MAY  I  9 1 8  to  MAY  I,  I  9 1 9 


•  Homes  of  Dependents  (Whites). 

4  Homes  of  Dependents  (Colored) 
®  West  Side  Settlement  House, 
f-ywl  Neighborhood  Surveyed 
Business  District. 


Map  IV 


. 


, 

/ 


7 


MAP  OF 

COLUMBUS,  OHIO 

SHOWING  LOCATION  OF 

HOMES  OF  DELINQUENTS 

UNDER  OFFICIAL  SUPERVISION  OF 

THE  FRANKLIN  COUNTY  JUVENILE  COURT 

MAY  I,  1918  TO  may  1,1919 


•  Homes  of  Delinquents. 

®  West  Side  Settlement  House. 
Neighborhood  Surveyed 

4±  Business  District. 


!  t.&o.c.RV 

■"tr 


Map  V 


- 

/ 

' 

- 


■ 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  167 


registered  electors  for  1917  whose  names  reappeared  in  the  1918 
list,  1 4 1,  or  an  average  of  19. 1  per  cent,  were  listed  with  different 
street  addresses  within  the  confines  of  their  respective  precincts. 
When  it  is  recalled  that  the  precinct  in  Columbus  comprises  a  very 
small  area  of  but  one  or  two  city  blocks,  it  is  obvious  that  quite  a 
considerable  amount  of  mobility  is  from  house  to  house  within 
the  same  neighborhood.  Another  sounding  was  taken  in  Ward  16, 
an  area  of  higher  economic  status.  All  the  families  in  a  single 
block  were  canvassed.  Of  the  fifty-one  families  visited  eleven 
had  been  on  the  street  less  than  one  year,  thirty-two  less  than 
five  years,  and  the  remainder  from  five  to  ten  years.  Forty-one 
families  had  moved  to  the  street  from  some  other  section  of  Colum¬ 
bus  and  of  this  number  twenty-eight  had  moved  to  the  street  from 
the  immediately  surrounding  neighborhood. 

Again  there  is  a  type  of  mobility  that  is  not  indicated  by  change 
of  residence,  but  which  is  almost  as  significant  from  the  standpoint 
of  neighborhood  life.  This  is  measured  by  the  ability  of  the 
individual,  due  to  modern  methods  of  communication,  to  utilize 
the  larger  social  environment  afforded  by  the  community  as  a  whole. 
The  automobile,  street  car,  telephone,  and  press,  together  with 
increased  leisure  time,  have  all  contributed  greatly  to  the  break¬ 
down  of  neighborhood  ties.  Moreover,  the  disintegrating  effects 
of  these  modern  means  of  communication  are  not  confined  to  the 
city  alone.  They  have  equal  significance  with  reference  to  life 
in  the  country.  To  quote  Cooley: 

In  our  own  life  the  intimacy  of  the  neighborhood  has  been  broken  up  by 
the  growth  of  an  intricate  mesh  of  wider  contacts  which  leaves  us  strangers 
to  people  who  live  in  the  same  house.  And  even  in  the  country  the  same 
principle  is  at  work,  though  less  obviously,  diminishing  our  economic  and 
spiritual  community  with  our  neighbors.1 

Warren  Wilson  says: 

In  those  states  in  which  the  trolley  system  has  been  extended  into  the 
country,  for  instance  Ohio  and  Indiana,  the  process  of  weakening  the  country 
population  has  been  hastened.  Sunday  becomes  for  country  people  a  day 
for  visiting  the  town  and  in  great  numbers  they  gather  at  the  interurban 
stations.  The  city  and  town  on  Sunday  is  filled  with  careless,  hurrying  groups 
of  visitors,  sight-seers  and  callers,  who  have  no  such  fixed  interest  as  that 

1  Social  Organization  (1912),  p.  26. 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


1 68 

expressed  in  church-going  or  in  substantial  social  processes.  For  the  time 
being  interurban  trolley  lines  have  dissipated  the  life  of  the  country 
communities. 

Referring  to  the  use  of  the  telephone  and  rural  free  delivery 
Wilson  continues: 

The  old  acquaintance  and  the  intimate  social  relations  of  the  country 
community  have  not  been  helped  by  the  telephone:  and  along  with  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  aliens  in  the  community,  one  quarter  or  one  half  or  three  quarters  of 
the  population,  the  telephone  has  had  the  effect  of  lowering  the  standards  of 
intimacy  and  separating  the  households  in  the  country  from  one  another. 
The  Rural  Free  Delivery  has  put  the  country  people  into  the  general  world 
economy  and  for  the  time  being  has  loosened  the  bonds  of  community  life.1 

It  is  an  obvious  fact  that  in  isolated  rural  communities  or 
backward  city  neighborhoods  where  the  telephone  has  not  become 
an  instrument  of  common  usage  and  where  poverty  restricts  the 
use  of  secondary  means  of  transportation,  or  where  linguistic  barriers 
prevent  communication  with  the  outside  world;  in  such  neighbor¬ 
hoods  are  to  be  found  the  best  examples  of  the  old  neighborly  forms 
of  association.  I  shall,  however,  reserve  for  a  later  chapter  the 
discussion  of  the  influences  of  secondary  means  of  communication 
upon  social  life  in  a  city  neighborhood. 

1  The  Evolution  of  the  Country  Community,  p.  128. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  IN 
THE  CITY  OF  COLUMBUS,  OHIO 


r.  d.  McKenzie 

University  of  Washington 


ABSTRACT 

Meaning  of  the  concept  neighborhood.  It  is  difficult  to  define  the  neighborhood  in 
the  modern  city.  Interpretations  of  neighborhood  made  by  various  scholars  seem 
to  include  three  elements:  spatial  proximity  to  some  focus  of  attention;  physical  or 
cultural  differentiation  from  surrounding  areas;  intimacy  of  association  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  area.  History  of  the  neighborhood.  Primitive  peoples  for  the  most 
part  live  in  small  territorial  societies.  The  village  community  type  of  social  organiza¬ 
tion  represents  the  dominance  of  neighborhood  over  kinship  as  a  bond  of  union.  The 
ancient  city  was  frequently  but  a  federation  of  small  locality  groups.  Even  the 
modern  city  grows,  as  a  rule,  by  the  inclusion  of  small  suburban  communities,  many 
of  which  retain  their  local  self-consciousness  for  years  after  incorporation.  Elements 
of  neighborhood  association.  Cooley  refers  to  the  neighborhood  as  the  universal 
nursery  of  the  primary  human  ideals,  such  as  kindness,  loyalty,  self-sacrifice,  etc.; 
however  hostility  as  well  as  mutual  aid  may  flourish  in  neighborhood  association. 
Common  sense  conception  of  city  neighborhood.  Students  in  Columbus  defined  neighbor¬ 
hood  as  the  small  personal  area  immediately  surrounding  their  homes.  Organized 
neighborhoods  in  Columbus.  Several  different  streets  of  the  city  have  developed  local 
organizations  for  the  promotion  of  local  interests,  such  as  street  beautification,  pro¬ 
tection  from  industrial  encroachments,  and  the  encouragement  of  sociability.  A 
study  of  these  organizations  shows  that  they  are  largely  the  products  of  the  initiative 
and  industry  of  a  few  individuals  or  families  on  each  street. 


III.  THE  NEIGHBORHOOD 

The  general  effect  of  the  continuous  sifting  and  sorting  of  a  city’s 
population,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  foregoing  chapters,  is  to  produce 
a  patchwork  of  local  areas  differentiated  from  one  another  by  cul¬ 
tural,  racial,  or  linguistic  peculiarities.  In  common  parlance  such 
areas  are  usually  designated  as  localities,  districts,  colonies,  or 
neighborhoods.  Since  the  neighborhood  is  one  of  our  oldest  social 
institutions  and  since  it  is  again  coming  into  the  focus  of  attention 
of  writers  on  urban  questions,1  let  us  briefly  examine  its  applicability 
to  local  life  in  the  city  environment. 

Probably  no  other  term  is  used  so  loosely  or  with  such  changing 
content  as  the  term  neighborhood,  and  very  few  concepts  are  more 

1  See,  e.g.,  such  recent  books  as  M.  P.  Follett’s  The  New  State  (1918),  and  John 
Daniel’s  America  via  the  Neighborhood  (1920). 


344 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  345 


difficult  to  define.  The  word  neighborhood  has  two  general  connota¬ 
tions:  physical  proximity  to  a  given  object  of  attention,  and  inti¬ 
macy  of  association  among  people  living  in  close  proximity  to  one 
another.  On  the  flat  plains  of  the  agricultural  states  there  are  no 
objective  marks  by  means  of  which  the  stranger  can  distinguish  one 
rural  neighborhood  from  another,  yet  almost  any  individual  ap¬ 
proached  can  give  a  very  definite  answer  as  to  what  constitutes  his 
neighborhood;  it  simply  embraces  the  area  round  about  his  home 
in  which  reside  those  families  with  whom  he  has  intimate  and 
direct  personal  relations. 

In  the  city,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  very  distinct  objective 
differences  between  the  various  residential  areas,  but  little  or  no 
personal  acquaintance  or  group  association  among  the  families  of 
any  particular  area.  It  is  on  account  of  these  peculiarities  of  city 
life  that  we  find  so  many  different  usages  of  the  term  neighborhood. 
Some  writers  are  accustomed  to  use  the  word  as  implying  mere 
physical  proximity  to  a  certain  institution  or  topographical  feature.1 
Others  refer  to  the  neighborhood  as  a  cultural  area,2  sufficiently 
differentiated  from  the  surrounding  territory  to  be  considered  as  a 
unit,  while  others  again  use  the  word  in  its  traditional  sense  as 
implying  intimacy  of  association3  and  personal  acquaintance. 

1  Stuckenberg,  Sociology ,  I  (1903),  81. 

2  Park  defines  the  neighborhood,  “The  City:  Suggestions  for  the  Investigation  of 
Human  Behavior  in  the  City  Environment”  {American  Journal  of  Sociology,  XX, 
579),  as  “a  locality  with  sentiments,  traditions,  and  a  history  of  its  own.” 

3  Cooley  lists  the  neighborhood  as  an  example  of  a  “primary  group”  (see  Social 
Organization ,  chap,  iii)  and  he  defines  a  “primary  group”  elsewhere  {Amer.  Jour,  of 
Sociol.,  XXV,  327)  as,  “an  intimate  group,  the  intimacy  covering  a  considerable 
period  and  resulting  in  a  habitual  sympathy,  the  mind  of  each  being  filled  with  a 
sense  of  the  mind  of  the  others,  so  that  the  group  as  a  whole  is  the  chief  sphere  of  the 
social  self  for  each  individual  in  it  of  emulation,  ambition,  resentment,  loyalty,  etc.” 
Kellogg  in  a  rather  vague  way  says,  “the  neighborhood  is  an  intermediate  group 
between  the  family  and  the  city,  among  those  communal  organizations  in  which 
people  live  as  distinct  from  purposeful  organisations  in  which  they  work  {Charities  and 
Correction  [1909],  p.  176).  Taylor  {Religion  in  Social  Action,  p.  166)  states  that 
“the  neighborhood  is  to  be  regarded  as  an  extension  of  the  home  and  the  church, 
and  is  identified  closely  with  both.”  Wood  refers  to  the  neighborhood  {Amer.  Jour, 
of  Sociol.,  XIX,  580),  as  “the  most  satisfactory  and  illuminating  form  of  the  social 
extension  of  personality,  of  the  interlacing  and  comprehensive  complex  of  the  interplay 
of  personalities;  the  social  unit  which  can  by  its  clear  definition  of  outline,  its  inner 
organic  completeness,  its  hair-trigger  reactions,  be  fairly  considered  as  functioning 


346 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


The  concept  neighborhood  has  come  down  to  us  from  a  distant 
past  and  therefore  has  connotations  which  scarcely  fit  the  facts 
when  applied  to  a  patch  of  life  in  a  modern  large  city.  As  far  back 
as  we  have  record  human  society  seems  to  have  been  composed  of 
a  vast  number  of  small  intimate  groups  more  or  less  definitely 
attached  to  fixed  localities. 

W.  G.  Sumner  says  {Folkways,  p.  12),  “The  concept  of  ‘primitive 
society’  which  we  ought  to  form  is  that  of  small  groups  scattered 
over  a  territory.”  Most  of  the  native  peoples  of  the  present  day 
live  in  small  neighborhood  groups  knit  together  by  notions  of  kin¬ 
ship,  common  custom,  and  local  feeling.  The  Dyaks  of  Borneo 
live  in  small  villages,  “each  of  which  is  inhabited  by  a  dozen 
families  and  sometimes  by  several  hundred  persons,  peacefully 
living  together”  (P.  Kropotkin,  Mutual  Aid  [1907],  p.  no).  “The 
Arunta  of  Central  Australia  are  distributed  in  a  large  number  of 
small  local  groups,  each  of  which  occupies  a  given  area  of  country 
and  has  its  own  headman  ....  and  the  members  of  each  group 
are  bound  together  by  a  strong  ‘local  feeling’”  (Edward  Wester- 
marck,  Moral  Ideas ,  Vol.  II  [1908],  199).  L.  T.  Hobhouse  relates 
that  “  the  Yahgans  ....  live  in  small  groups  of  three  or  four  fami¬ 
lies,  without  any  regular  clan  organization,  though  with  fairly  well 
established  customs  to  which  the  feeling  of  the  community  lends 
support,  a  support  which  is  frequently  vindicated  by  force  of 

arms . The  Veddahs  consist  of  a  mere  handful  of  scattered 

families  living  sometimes  in  trees,  in  the  rainy  season  often  in 
caves,  though  they  are  capable  of  making  primitive  huts.  They 
are  hunters,  and  each  Veddah,  with  his  wife  and  family,  keeps 
his  hunting  ground  for  the  most  part  scrupulously  to  himself” 
{Morals  in  Evolution  [1906],  Part  1,  pp.  43-47).  Referring  to  the 
Yakuts  of  Siberia  Sumner  says  (quoted  by  Thomas,  Social  Origins , 
p.  83),  “The  largest  number  of  settlements  contain  four  or  five  huts, 
with  twenty  or  thirty  souls.”  Similar  examples  might  be  added 
indefinitely. 

like  a  social  mind.”  Sanderson  {Publications  of  American  Sociological  Society ,  XIV, 
86-87),  distinguishes  between  the  community  and  the  neighborhood  as  follows: 
“the  community  is  the  smallest  geographical  unit  of  organized  association  of  the 
chief  human  activities;  ....  the  neighborhood  is  the  smallest  association  group  of 
families,  with  regard  to  place;  it  has  no  organization  of  activities.” 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  347 


The  group  forming  habit  of  human  beings  is,  of  course,  a 
biological  inheritance  from  our  prehuman  ancestors.  As  Shaler 
says  ( The  Neighbor ,  pp.  52-53),  “the  tribal  habit  of  man  is  not  an 
invention  made  by  him.  It  evidently  was  inherited  from  his 
ancestors  of  the  lower  life,  for  among  all  the  Quadrumana  clearly 
to  be  reckoned  his  collateral  but  near  organic  and  psychic  kins¬ 
men,  this  social  habit  prevails.  The  creatures  usually  dwell  in 
groups  which  are  evidently  held  together  by  a  sympathetic  bond, 
and  are  in  more  or  less  hostile  relations  to  other  groups  of  the  same 
or  diverse  species,  so  that  we  may  regard  the  tribal  motive  as  even 
more  affirmed  than  it  could  have  been  by  human  experience.” 

As  long  as  primitive  groups  lived  in  a  more  or  less  migratory 
fashion  the  conception  of  common  kinship,  whether  fictitious  or 
real,  seems  to  have  been  the  dominant  bond  of  union.  But  with 
the  development  of  more  stable  modes  of  life  within  definite  ter¬ 
ritorial  locations  the  bond  of  kinship  gradually  becomes  replaced 
by  the  bond  of  neighborhood.  Maine  says  {Early  History  of 
Institutions  [1875],  p.  72),  “I  think,  upon  trustworthy  evidence, 
that,  from  the  moment  when  a  tribal  community  settles  down 
finally  upon  a  definite  space  of  land,  the  Land  begins  to  be  the 
basis  of  society  in  place  of  the  Kinship.” 

The  universality  of  the  village  community  form  of  social 
organization  has  been  well  attested  by  Maine,  Gomme,  and  others. 
Outside  of  the  large  cities  the  village  community  comprises  the 
leading  mode  of  social  life  for  the  peoples  of  all  eastern  countries. 
Moreover  the  present  Russian  mir,  the  Polish  zadruga,  and  the 
Swiss  canton,  all  present  many  of  the  characteristics  of  their  eastern 
prototypes.  Furthermore,  to  quote  W.  G.  Sumner  {The  Challenge 
of  Facts  and  Other  Essays,  p.  314),  “the  picture  presented  by  the 
settlements  in  this  country  until  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  that  of  little  groups  of  farmers  scattered  along  the 
coast  and  rivers,  forming  towns  under  the  loosest  possible  organiza¬ 
tion.”  These  early  villages,  of  course,  formed  the  nuclei  of  our 
well-known  New  England  town  system. 

Even  with  the  development  of  city  life  the  small  neighborhood 
units  tend  to  persist  within  the  larger  corporations.  “The  ancient 
city  of  Teheran  ....  was  divided  into  twelve  districts,  almost 
totally  isolated  from  one  another  and  permanently  at  variance  with 


34§ 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


one  another”  (R.  M.  Maciver,  Community ,  p.  251).  The  same 
tendency  is  seen  in  Rome  whose  seven  hills  formed  seven  distinct 
neighborhoods.  De  Coulanges  in  The  Ancient  City  shows  that  the 
Greek  city  was  but  a  federation  of  local  groups,  each  of  which  had 
its  own  religious  and  civil  independence,  and  acted  as  a  unit  resent¬ 
ing  interference  on  the  part  of  the  larger  community.  Of  course 
similar  tendencies  toward  local  autonomy  may  be  witnessed  con¬ 
stantly  in  our  own  cities  at  the  present  time.  Our  cities  grow  by  the 
inclusion  of  “ satellite  communities”  and  frequently  such  commu¬ 
nities  refuse  to  become  absorbed  in  the  larger  corporations,  and 
usually  after  surrendering  their  political  autonomy  retain  for  years 
a  strong  local  consciousness  and  social  independence. 

In  its  traditional  application  the  term  neighborhood  stood  for 
rather  definite  group  sentiments,  which  were  the  products  of  the 
intimate  personal  relations  among  the  members  of  the  small  iso¬ 
lated  communities  of  which  society  was  formerly  composed.  The 
primary  face-to-face  associations  of  the  traditional  neighborhood 
group  formed  a  universal  nursery  for  what  Cooley  calls  “the 
primary  ideals,”  such  as  loyalty,  truth,  service,  and  kindness.1 

Small  homogeneous  societies,  such  as  the  Russian  mir,  the 
Polish  zadruga,  or  the  isolated  rural  village,  furnish  our  best  exam¬ 
ples  of  primary  groups,  that  is  of  groups  with  a  single  set  of  defini¬ 
tions  of  life  to  which  all  the  members  adhere  with  an  emotional 
unanimity.  The  ideas  pertaining  to  group  welfare  have  dominance 
over  individual  wishes,  consequently  there  is  a  minimum  amount  of 
individuality  when  compared  with  life  in  a  modern  city.  The 
solidarity  of  the  traditional  neighborhood  is  of  the  spontaneous 
unreflective  type.2  It  is  the  result  of  common  human  nature 
responding  to  common  stimuli.  The  relation  between  individuals 
of  the  group  is  that  of  equality.  Referring  to  the  early  village  life 
in  this  country,  Sumner  says  (op.  cit.,  p.  296),  “It  is  plain  that 
equality  is  the  prevailing  characteristic  of  this  society ;  its  members 
are  equal  in  fortune,  in  education,  in  descent  (at  least  after  a  genera¬ 
tion  or  two),  in  mode  of  life,  in  social  standing,  in  range  of  ideas, 
in  political  importance,  and  in  everything  else  which  is  social,  and 

1  Social  Organization,  chap.  iv. 

2  See  James  Mark  Baldwin,  The  Individual  and  Society,  chap,  ii,  1911. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  349 


nobody  made  them  so.”  Wood,  in  recounting  the  personal  traits  of 
our  modern  professional  neighbor,  the  city  boss,  expresses  a  similar 
idea  ( Amer .  Jour,  of  Sociol.,  XIX,  580),  “The  local  boss,  however 
autocratic  he  may  be  in  the  larger  sphere  of  the  city  with  the  power 
which  he  gets  from  the  neighborhood,  must  always  be  in  and  of  the 
local  people:  and  he  is  always  very  careful  not  to  try  to  deceive  the 
local  people  so  far  as  their  distinctively  local  interests  are  concerned. 
It  is  hard  to  fool  a  neighborhood  about  its  own  neighborhood 
affairs.”  It  is  this  insistence  upon  social  equality  among  neighbors 
that  deters  the  development  of  latent  leadership  in  our  rural 
communities.1 

The  solidarity  of  the  traditional  neighborhood  included  physical 
as  well  as  social  objects.  The  old  swimming  pool,  the  familiar 
hills  and  trees,  the  architecture  and  location  of  buildings,  all 
function  as  sentimental  attachments  of  the  neighborhood.  The 
individual  becomes  so  closely  identified  with  all  these  objects  of 
early  and  intimate  contact  that  they  tend  to  form  a  part  of  the 
“extended  self.”  Dr.  W.  I.  Thomas,2  in  discussing  the  efforts  of 
Germany  to  Prussianize  Poland,  says,  “If  the  primary  group  is 
distinguished  by  face-to-face  and  sentimental  relations  I  think  it 
is  correct  to  say  that  the  land  of  the  peasant  was  included  in  his 
group.  And  this  land  sentiment  is  the  most  important  factor  in 
the  failure  up  to  date  of  the  plans  of  the  colonization  commission.” 
Attachment  for  locality  is  even  today  a  significant  force  in  the 
segregation  of  a  city’s  population. 

Loyalty,  self-sacrifice,  and  service  are  the  natural  products  of 
the  intimate  personal  neighborhood  groups.  As  Tufts  says,  kind¬ 
ness  suggests  kinness,  and  applied  originally  to  members  of  the 
“  we-group  ”  only.3  Kropotkin,  in  his  Mutual  Aid  furnishes  us  with 
a  vast  array  of  evidence  concerning  the  reciprocal  kindness  of 
members  of  primitive  communities.  Sumner  describes  (quoted  by 
Thomas,  Social  Origins ,  p.  79)  the  neighborly  relations  of  the 
Yakuts  of  northern  Siberia:  “If  one  man’s  cow  calves  earlier  than 
those  of  the  others,  custom  requires  that  he  shall  share  cream  and 

1  See  an  article  by  G.  Walter  Fiske,  Publications  of  Amer.  Sociol.  Society ,  XI,  59. 

2  Amer.  Jour,  of  Sociol.,  XIX,  632. 

3  Cf.  Tufts,  Our  Democracy,  Its  Origins  and  Its  Tasks,  chap.  iii. 


350 


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milk  with  those  neighbors  who  at  that  time  have  none.”  Cooley 
says  {Social Organization,  p.  38),  “One  is  never  more  human,  and, 
as  a  rule,  never  happier,  than  when  he  is  sacrificing  his  narrow  and 
merely  private  interest  to  the  higher  call  of  the  congenial  group.” 
In  his  book  The  American  Town  (1906),  p.  32,  J.  M.  Williams  de¬ 
scribes  the  typical  relationship  between  neighbors  as  follows:  “A 
man  must  stand  ready  to  help  his  neighbor  as  well  as  himself.  Thus, 
when  two  woodsmen  were  working  independently  in  adjoining 
wood-lots,  each  would  impulsively  run  to  the  help  of  the  other  as 
he  struggled  to  ‘skid’  a  log  upon  a  bob-sled.  Til  help  you  and  you 

help  me  in  return ’  represents  the  complete  relation . To  be  so 

‘close-fisted’  as  to  fail  of  generosity  in  time  of  a  neighbor’s  need 
was  bad  enough,  but  to  fail  to  return,  when  needed,  help  generously 
extended,  was  meanness  too  abject  for  expression.” 

Of  course  social  friction  and  petty  jealousies  are  as  much  the 
products  of  neighborhood  association  as  are  self-sacrifice  and 
mutual  aid.  As  E.  C.  Hayes1  says,  “While  instinctive  cohesion 
is  stronger  in  small  groups,  so  also  is  personal  friction  greater,  and 
the  members  of  a  small  group  much  in  spatial  proximity  must  have 
more  in  common  in  order  to  render  their  union  permanent  and 
strong,  than  is  required  to  bind  together  larger  populations.” 

In  order  to  get  an  expression  of  the  common-sense  conception  of 
the  neighborhood  within  the  city,  I  had  the  students  in  my  classes 
at  Ohio  State  University,  who  were  residents  of  Columbus,  write 
answers  to  the  following  questions:  “Draw  a  map  of  that  part  of 
your  city  which  you  consider  to  be  your  neighborhood.  Indicate 
on  the  map  the  location  of  your  home,  and  state  the  number  of 
years  you  have  lived  there.  Give  your  reasons  for  bounding 
your  neighborhood  as  you  do.”  The  following  statements  are 
typical  of  the  fifty-seven  replies  analyzed : 

(1)  These  are  the  streets  I  traverse  oftenest.  (2)  On  these  streets  live  the 
people  with  whom  I  am  acquainted  and  associate.  (3)  When  we  get  in  this 
part  of  town  we  feel  that  we  are  getting  near  home.  (4)  I  consider  this  my 
neighborhood  because  it  includes  the  houses  nearest  my  home  and  because 
I  know  most  of  the  families  in  this  vicinity  very  intimately.  (5)  These  are  the 
streets  that  I  used  to  play  in  and  I  still  know  most  of  the  families  residing  here. 


1  Introduction  to  Sociology,  p.  76. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  351 


(6)  To  my  mind  the  word  neighborhood  includes  the  people  right  around  my 
house ;  it  is  the  vicinity  very  near.  (7)  We  speak  of  anything  happening  within 
a  square  of  our  home  as  being  in  our  neighborhood  but  we  do  not  know  half  of 
the  people  who  live  there.  We  have  lived  on  this  street  six  years.  (8)  I  used 
to  play  with  the  children  from  most  of  these  families  [that  is,  families  within  an 
area  of  about  a  block  and  a  half  on  the  same  street] ;  my  small  brother  made 
me  acquainted  with  others.  I  have  lived  here  nine  years.  (9)  Neighborhood  to 
me  means  the  people  living  in  the  same  block  we  live  in,  those  across  the  alley 
in  the  rear,  and  those  living  in  the  block  across  the  street.  (10)  I  consider  the 
cross  streets  as  the  boundary  of  our  neighborhood,  the  streets  being  so  wide, 
especially  where  I  live,  that  we  do  not  recognize  the  people  on  the  other  side. 
I  have  lived  here  fourteen  years.  (1 1)  I  consider  that  this  constitutes  our  neigh¬ 
borhood  [an  area  of  a  couple  of  blocks]  because  these  are  the  families  that  we 
come  in  contact  with  most  frequently  on  the  street  car  and  at  community  gather¬ 
ings.  (12)  I  consider  these  particular  streets  my  neighborhood  because  gener¬ 
ally  they  are  the  only  surrounding  scene  and  the  only  people  with  whom  we 
come  in  daily  contact.  (13)  I  have  no  particular  reason  for  using  this  boundary 
as  the  boundary  of  our  neighborhood  except  that  it  is  the  block  in  which  we 
live,  the  families  here  are  not  of  the  sociable  type;  I  have  lived  here  four  years. 
(14)  I  should  say  that  my  immediate  neighborhood  consists  of  the  two  southeast 
and  southwest  blocks;  while  the  block  at  the  northwest  is  also  my  neighbor¬ 
hood  it  is  not  my  immediate  neighborhood  because  we  do  not  associate  with 
these  people  and  the  spirit  of  the  two  factions  is  different.  I  have  lived  in 
this  section  for  six  years.  (15)  I  consider  my  immediate  neighborhood 
around  the  square  S.  to  M.  avenues  since  that  is  where  I  have  lived  the  last 
five  years.  I  think  this  is  my  neighborhood  because  we  meet  these  people 
oftener  and  feel  that  we  know  them  better. 

From  a  consideration  of  these  statements  and  from  an  examina¬ 
tion  of  the  maps  which  accompanied  them,  it  is  clear  to  me  that  the 
conception  which  the  average  city  dweller  holds  of  his  own  neighbor¬ 
hood  is  that  of  a  very  small  area  within  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
his  home,  the  limits  of  which  seem  to  be  determined  by  the  extent 
of  his  personal  observations  and  daily  contacts. 

But  in  referring  to  neighborhoods  in  general  in  Columbus  much 
larger  areas  seem  to  be  implied,  spatial  proximity  to  some  central 
focus  of  attention  being  the  determining  feature.  For  example  it 
is  local  custom  to  speak  of  “Indianola,”  “Glen  Echo, ”  “The 
Hilltop,”  “West  Side,”  etc.,  as  various  neighborhoods  within  the 
city,  although  each  of  these  areas  embraces  many  streets  and  con¬ 
tains  thousands  of  people.  What  then  is  the  city  neighborhood  ? 
For  certain  administrative  purposes  it  is  important  to  consider  these 


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larger  geographical  expressions  as  units  of  neighborhood  interest, 
while  for  other  purposes,  where  intensity  of  social  opinion  counts, 
the  smaller  nuclei  of  common  life  may  prove  more  effective  units. 

The  segregation  of  the  population  within  a  city  along  racial,  economic, 
social,  and  vocational  lines,  tends  to  give  to  different  local  areas  at  least  an 
external  coloring  which  enables  one  to  draw  more  or  less  definite  lines  of  demar- 
kation  between  them.  In  the  course  of  time  these  different  areas  acquire  a  sort 
of  homogeneity  and  a  historical  continuity  which  develops  a  rudimentary  sense 
of  self-consciousness.  This  self-consciousness  is  usually  enhanced  if  the  area 
acquires  a  name  designating  its  chief  feature  of  attention,  such  as  Niggertown, 
Flytown,  Little  Italy,  etc.  Such  areas  are,  as  a  rule,  in  constant  process  of 
change,  but  since  their  selective  influences  attract  about  the  same  class  of 
people  from  year  to  year  their  external  aspects  maintain  a  somewhat  regular 
form.  While  districts  of  this  sort  vary  greatly  in  size  and  in  social  solidarity, 
and  while  they  may  possess  but  few  of  the  characteristics  of  the  traditional 
neighborhood,  nevertheless  they  possess  sufficient  significance  from  the  stand¬ 
point  of  social  selection,  and  have  sufficient  importance  in  community  organiza¬ 
tion  to  warrant  some  such  characterization  as  the  term  neighborhood. 

If  we  consider  the  neighborhood  then  in  this  more  general  sense 
as  representing  a  patch  of  common  life  within  the  larger  community, 
which  is  sufficiently  differentiated  from  the  city  as  a  whole  to  be 
thought  of  as  a  unit,  we  have  several  different  types  of  neighbor¬ 
hoods  represented  in  Columbus.  Taking  as  our  criterion  for  the 
classification  of  these  neighborhoods,  the  chief  element  in  population 
selection,  we  have  three  grades  of  economic  neighborhoods,1  that 

1  Consult  Map  II,  p.  153,  ‘‘Economic  Areas  in  Columbus,”  for  the  locations  of  these 
different  economic  neighborhoods.  It  will  be  observed  that,  with  but  one  exception, 
the  south  side,  the  economic  status  of  the  wards  increases  as  one  goes  from  the  center 
out  toward  the  periphery  of  the  city.  In  fact  the  most  exclusive  neighborhoods  all  lie 
beyond  the  corporation  limits..  On  the  east  side  the  suburban  village  of  Bexley  is  the 
restricted  area  for  the  city’s  social  elite.  For  many  years  Columbus  has  vainly  sought 
to  have  this  village  enter  the  corporation,  but  up  to  date  the  villagers  have  preferred 
their  local  autonomy  to  the  anonymity  of  city  life.  On  the  uplands,  just  beyond  the 
western  extremity  of  the  city,  are  three  other  exclusive  residential  villages,  Grand  View 
Heights,  Marble  Cliff,  and  Upper  Arlington.  These  villages  are  all  of  comparatively 
recent  origin  and  the  real  estate  restrictions  limit  the  population  to  the  wealthy  home¬ 
owning  class.  Local  consciousness  is  quite  pronounced  in  all  three  and  several  experi¬ 
ments  in  community  enterprises  have  been  introduced,  such  as  the  local  paper,  the 
community  church,  the  community  kitchen,  etc. 

Another  new  residential  section  of  the  more  exclusive  type  is  fast  developing  just 
beyond  the  northern  limits  of  the  city.  Many  new  additions  have  been  opened  up  in 
this  vicinity  during  the  past  few  years  and  the  Highlands  east  of  the  Olentangy  River 
are  rapidly  becoming  adorned  with  beautiful  homes  and  picturesque  gardens. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  353 


is,  areas  representing  three  fairly  distinct  economic  divisions. 
These  may  be  grouped  as  poor,  middle  class,  and  wealthy  residential 
districts. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  distinct  racial  and  national  groups 
where  the  chief  elements  in  population  selection  are  consciousness  of 
kind,  common  language,  and  traditions.  These  are  represented  in 
Columbus  by  the  large  negro  neighborhood  on  East  Long  Street, 
by  the  mixed  Hebrew  and  colored  neighborhood  immediately  east 
of  the  central  part  of  the  city,  and  by  the  homogeneous  German 
neighborhood  on  South  High  Street. 

In  the  third  place  we  have  the  industrial  neighborhood,  in  which 
reside  the  employees  of  a  large  industry,  as,  for  example,  the  “  South 
Side  Neighborhood”  surrounding  the  Columbus  Steel  Works,  the 
chief  factor  in  social  selection  being  convenience  to  place  of  employ¬ 
ment.  Such  neighborhoods  usually  represent  a  mixture  of  racial 
and  national  groups. 

Again  we  may  classify  neighborhoods  according  to  the  status 
of  their  historical  development  into  nascent,  self-conscious,  and 
disintegrating  neighborhoods.1  Like  all  other  social  groups,  city 
neighborhoods  are  ever  in  a  process  of  change.  Fluctuations  in 
rental  and  land  values,  due  to  the  vacillation  of  city  life,  produce 
continuous  movements  of  population  from  one  section  of  the  city 
to  another,  thus  changing  the  economic  and  racial  complexion  of 
neighborhoods  within  a  comparatively  short  space  of  time.2 

The  city  neighborhood  differs  considerably  from  its  traditional 
prototype  in  that  it  represents  a  much  more  selected  social  group. 
Economic,  racial,  and  cultural  forces,  by  distributing  the  population 
into  different  residential  sections,  give  to  the  city  neighborhood  an 
external  appearance  of  homogeneity  that  is  not  frequently  found 
in  small  villages  or  rural  neighborhoods — a  homogeneity,  however, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  which  is  more  apparent  than  real.  Racial 
prejudice,  national  clannishness,  and  class  conflict,  all  function  as 

1  See  Robert  E.  Park,  op.  cit.,  p.  581. 

2  This  is  especially  true  with  respect  to  immigrant  neighborhoods.  The  economic 
progress  of  the  immigrant  is  faster,  as  a  rule,  than  that  of  the  slum-dwelling  American; 
consequently  more  immigrants  than  Americans  graduate  from  the  poorer  neighbor¬ 
hoods.  The  district  surrounding  the  Godman  Guild  Settlement  House  of  Columbus 
has,  according  to  the  Settlement  head,  changed  its  immigrant  population  several 
times  during  the  past  decade. 


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social  forces  to  give  the  city  neighborhood  what  self-consciousness 
or  solidarity  it  may  possess. 

IV.  EXPERIMENTS  IN  NEIGHBORHOOD  ORGANIZATION 

The  city  of  Columbus  offers  a  number  of  rather  unusual  exam¬ 
ples  of  the  spontaneous  development  of  local  sentiment.  In  addi¬ 
tion  to  the  local  improvement  associations  which  have  been 
organized  in  each  of  the  larger  local  divisions  of  the  city  for  the 
purpose  of  directing  the  general  business  interests,  several  streets 
have  formed  organizations  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  residents 
on  a  single  street  or  city  block.  Some  of  these  organizations  have 
interesting  histories,  and  as  experiments  in  the  development  of 
local  sentiment  are  worthy  of  consideration.  As  far  as  can  be 
ascertained  these  local  organizations  are  all  confined  to  the  northern 
and  western  sections  of  the  city,  regions  which  are  comparatively 
new,  and  for  the  most  part  occupied  by  home-owners. 

Oakland  Avenue  Flower  and  Garden  Club.1 — Oakland  Avenue  is 
located  near  the  center  of  the  sixteenth  ward,  a  few  blocks  north  of 
the  university  campus.  The  part  of  the  street  that  is  organized 
extends  from  High  Street  on  the  west  to  Indianola  Avenue  on  the 
east — a  distance  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  The  street  is  now 
thirteen  years  old,  having  been  held  in  reserve  by  a  real  estate  firm 
while  the  surrounding  area  was  built  up.  A  number  of  property 
restrictions  have  given  a  physical  uniformity  to  the  street  and  at 
the  same  time  made  for  a  selection  of  population.  There  is  a 
building  restriction  ranging  from  $2,500  to  $3,000  (pre-war  prices) 
as  a  minimum  cost  per  residence.  The  lots  are  wide  and  the  homes 
are  required  to  be  built  thirty  feet  back  from  the  curb  line,  thus 
leaving  a  uniformly  wide  space  for  lawns  and  shrubs.  Double 
dwellings  and  apartment  houses  are  forbidden,  also  places  of 
business. 

The  street  became  formally  organized  in  the  spring  of  1912,  the 
year  of  the  Columbus  Centennial.  During  that  spring  the  Colum¬ 
bus  Flower  and  Garden  Club  was  formed  in  order  to  promote 
general  interest  in  city  beautification.  A  prize  was  offered  for  the 

1  See  Map  I,  p.  148,  for  the  locations  of  each  of  the  neighborhoods  described  in  this 
chapter. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  355 


best-kept  street  in  the  city.  Under  the  capable  direction  of  one  of 
the  leading  residents  of  the  street,  the  “  Oakland  Flower  and  Garden 
Club”  was  organized.  Meetings  of  the  residents  were  held  in  the 
Northwood  School,  located  at  the  foot  of  the  street,  with  the  result 
that  an  enthusiastic  program  for  street  beautification  was  adopted. 
Large  granite  bowlders  were  erected  at  both  ends  of  the  street, 
giving  it  an  individuality  and  prominence  apart  from  the  general 
neighborhood.  Uniformity  in  design  of  lawn  decoration  was 
adopted  with  the  result  that,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  the  citizens 
of  the  street  celebrated  the  jubilee  of  being  the  proud  winners  of  the 
civic  prize  for  the  most  beautiful  street  in  the  city.  Meanwhile  a 
local  paper,  the  Oakland  Avenue  News,  was  periodically  published 
and  distributed  to  all  the  families  on  the  street. 

The  enthusiasm  engendered  by  this  successful  start  has  never 
quite  died  out  although  it  has  diminished  in  intensity  and  has 
required  careful  fanning  on  the  part  of  a  few  indomitable  spirits 
whose  interest  in  the  success  of  the  undertaking  has  remained 
unabated.  Although  a  comparatively  stable  street,  the  extent  of 
change  of  residence  has  been  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  fluctuat¬ 
ing  interest  in  the  organization.  Of  the  eighty-five  families  whose 
names  were  listed  in  the  street  directory  published  in  the  Oakland 
Avenue  News  for  September,  1913,  thirty-eight  had  moved  from  the 
street  before  June,  1918 — a  period  of  five  years. 

The  organization,  designed  primarily  to  promote  street  beautifi¬ 
cation,  subsequently  gave  rise  to  many  local  activities  of  a  social 
and  neighborly  nature,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  the  admir¬ 
able  practice  of  sending  floral  tributes  to  neighbors  in  case  of 
sickness  or  death;  social  picnics  in  which  all  families  on  the  street 
participate,  ladies’  clubs,  and  a  renowned  bowling  team,  composed^ 
of  male  residents  of  the  street. 

Northwood  Avenue  Flower  and  Garden  Club. — Northwood 
Avenue,  which  lies  next  to,  and  runs  parallel  with,  the  street  just 
described,  supports  a  similar  organization.  In  fact  I  might  have 
described  the  two  streets  together,  were  it  not  for  the  strong  neigh¬ 
borly  rivalry  and  unitary  group  character  of  each.  Northwood  has 
a  physical  basis  for  group  life  precisely  similar  to  that  of  Oakland 
Avenue.  It  formed  a  part  of  the  same  real  estate  division  and, 


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therefore,  was  subjected  to  the  same  street  restrictions.  Its  street 
organization  was  motivated  by  the  same  cause  as  that  of  Oakland 
Avenue  but  did  not  start  off  under  quite  such  propitious  circum¬ 
stances.  It  took  the  Northwood  residents  a  bit  longer  to  get  into 
teamlike  action,  but  once  started  their  organization  has  retained 
its  health  and  vitality  even  better  than  that  of  its  rival. 

In  the  spring  of  1917,  with  the  assistance  of  some  of  my  students, 
I  made  a  brief  study  of  the  Northwood  organization  in  order  to  get 
some  clues  respecting  the  nature  of  its  group  life.  Every  home  on 
the  street  was  visited  with  a  brief  questionnaire.  I  shall  succinctly 
summarize  here  the  results  of  our  findings  at  that  time.  Question¬ 
naires  were  filled  out  by  fifty-one  families.  Of  these  eleven  had 
been  living  on  the  street  less  than  one  year,  thirty-two  less  than  five 
years,  and  the  remainder  from  five  to  ten  years.  All  but  three  of 
the  male  heads  of  households  were  native-born  Americans,  and 
thirty-seven  of  the  fifty-one  male  heads  were  born  in  the  state  of 
Ohio,  six  of  whom  were  born  in  Columbus. 

In  reply  to  the  question,  “Why  did  you  select  this  street  as  a 
place  of  residence?”  fourteen  said  that  it  was  on  account  of  the 
attractive  features  of  the  street;  another  fourteen  said  it  was 
because  the  house  suited  them;  twenty  could  give  no  particular 
reason  for  their  decision;  while  three  maintained  that  their  selection 
was  due  to  the  presence  of  friends  and  relatives  on  the  street. 
Moreover,  thirty-two  families  stated  that  they  knew  nothing  of  the 
street  organization,  prior  to  taking  up  residence  there,  while  the 
remaining  nineteen  families  were  familiar  with  the  social  activities 
of  the  street  and  were  more  or  less  attracted  to  it  on  that  account. 

With  respect  to  intimacy  and  personal  acquaintance,  nine 
families  stated  that  they  did  not  have  even  a  speaking  acquaintance 
with  any  other  family  on  the  street;  thirty-five  families  reported 
that  they  had  a  speaking  acquaintance  with  more  than  ten  families 
on  the  street;  while  seven  reported  that  they  had  a  speaking 
acquaintance  with  more  than  thirty  families.  Six  families  stated 
that  they  were  related,  either  by  blood  or  marriage,  to  one  or  more 
other  families  on  the  street. 

Of  the  male  heads  of  households  twelve  reported  no  affiliation 
with  community  clubs  or  fraternal  orders  of  any  sort;  twenty- three 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  357 


were  members  of  but  one  fraternal  organization;  while  sixteen 
belonged  to  two  or  more  clubs.  As  regards  religious  affiliations, 
eleven  different  sects  were  represented,  including  membership  or 
attendance  at  twenty-four  different  churches.  Moreover,  the 
leading  bread  winners  were  distributed  among  twenty-eight  dif¬ 
ferent  forms  of  occupation,  and  of  these  only  nine  reported  drawing 
any  clientage  from  the  immediate  neighborhood. 

An  effort  was  made  to  sound  the  attitudes  of  the  different 
householders  toward  their  street  organization  and  its  leading  func¬ 
tions.  Of  the  fifty-one  families,  twenty  stated  that  they  had  never 
attended  any  of  the  street’s  meetings;  thirty-nine  considered  the 
organization  definitely  worth  supporting;  of  these,  twenty  con¬ 
sidered  its  main  value  to  be  the  promotion  of  friendship  and  neigh¬ 
borly  feeling,  while  the  remaining  nineteen  valued  it  chiefly  from 
the  standpoint  of  its  effect  upon  property  values.  Twelve  families 
did  not  consider  the  organization  worthy  of  support.  Concerning 
the  street  practice  of  sending  flowers  to  neighbors  in  the  event  of 
sickness  or  death,  twenty-nine  families  reported  having  received 
such  floral  tributes,  and  all  but  four  indicated  positive  appreciation 
of  the  custom  and  thought  it  should  be  continued. 

Turning  now  to  a  consideration  of  the  street  paper,  the  North- 
wood  Avenue  Bulletin ,  this  little  paper  has  been  published  at  irregu¬ 
lar  intervals  ever  since  1912.  It  is  an  unusually  attractive  little 
sheet  containing  many  interesting  views  of  the  street  and  supplying 
information  with  respect  to  gardening  and  other  matters  of  family 
interest.  It  also  carries  a  page  headed  “Neighborhood  Happen¬ 
ings,”  under  which  are  listed  news  items  pertaining  to  the  people 
of  the  street.  This  paper  represents  the  idea  of  one  or  two  enthu¬ 
siastic  promoters  and  has  been  published  at  a  loss  to  the  few  people 
most  intimately  concerned.  An  effort  was  made  to  ascertain  the 
attitudes  of  the  householders  toward  this  paper,  with  the  interesting 
result  that  forty- two  of  the  fifty-one  families  were  strong  in  their 
approval  of  it  and  considered  that  its  publication  should  be 
continued. 

Although  a  few  of  the  families  residing  on  this  street  at  the  time 
the  above  survey  was  made  were  opposed  to  any  attempts  to  start 
“this  small  town  stuff”  in  the  city,  still  all  but  five  maintained  that 


358 


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it  would  cause  them  considerable  regret  to  have  to  leave  the  street. 
Many  families  who  stated  that  they  had  not  the  time  to  participate 
actively  in  the  work  of  the  street  organization  nevertheless  indorsed 
the  movement  as  being  distinctly  meritorious. 

Ninth  Avenue  neighborhood. — Another  interesting  example  of 
local  manifestation  of  neighborhood  sentiment  and  one  which 
has  been  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  citizens  of  Columbus  for 
the  past  decade  or  so  is  that  of  the  residents  of  West  Ninth  Avenue. 
This  little  street,  only  two  short  blocks  in  length,  is  located  close  to 
the  southwest  corner  of  the  university  campus,  in  Ward  15. 
The  Neil  Avenue  street-car  line  forms  the  eastern  boundary  of  the 
neighborhood  and  the  university  farm  borders  it  on  the  west. 

Unlike  the  streets  just  described,  the  Ninth  Avenue  neighbor¬ 
hood  supports  no  formal  organization  or  street  paper,  but  for  years 
past  the  residents  of  the  street  have  shown  evidence  of  a  distinct 
group  feeling  which  reaches  its  highest  culmination  every  year  in  a 
Fourth  of  July  celebration.  At  this  time  the  street  is  roped  off 
from  city  traffic  and  all  the  residents  of  the  block  participate  in  a 
general  street  picnic,  followed  in  the  evening  by  a  display  of  fire¬ 
works,  which  has  become  a  tradition  in  the  local  life  of  the  com¬ 
munity.  The  street  is  much  shorter  than  either  of  the  others  de¬ 
scribed,  making  it  unnecessary  to  develop  secondary  means  of 
communication,  such  as  the  local  newspaper. 

In  physical  appearance  the  street  differs  considerably  from  the 
surrounding  area.  In  the  first  place  it  is  built  up  with  a  distinctly 
superior  type  of  residence  from  that  found  in  the  neighboring 
locality,  the  assessed  value  of  the  homes  ranging  from  $4,000  to 
$15,000.  The  lawns  are  spacious  and  uniformly  deep,  lending  a 
unitary  character  to  the  street. 

In  our  brief  study  of  this  street  we  found  that  its  group  life 
depended  very  largely  upon  the  energetic  activities  of  a  single 
family.  The  head  of  this  household  and  his  wife  make  a  hobby  of 
fostering  neighborhood  sentiment  among  the  residents  of  the  street. 
The  meetings  that  are  held  to  plan  entertainments,  etc.,  are  usually 
conducted  at  this  man’s  residence. 

In  addition  to  the  club  life  that  prevails  among  the  residents  of 
this  street,  such  as  picnics  for  the  children,  social  activities  of  the 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  359 


women,  and  quoit  games  among  the  men,  various  other  forms  of 
collective  action  for  local  purposes  have  taken  place.  For  instance, 
the  street  has  persistently  acted  as  a  unit  to  keep  its  western  vista 
over  the  university  farm  free  from  obstruction.  It  has  also  had 
several  experiments  in  corporate  action  in  fighting  the  intrusion  of 
objectionable  structures  within  its  limits. 

Glenmawr  Avenue  Improvement  Association. — -This  little  neigh¬ 
borhood  is  located  in  an  attractive  spot  near  the  northern  end  of  the 
sixteenth  ward.  The  nature  of  this  community  and  the  purpose  of 
its  organization  are  well  described  in  the  following  words  of  its 
secretary: 

There  is  a  park  thirty-five  feet  wide  and  about  one  thousand  feet  long  in 
the  center  of  Glenmawr  Avenue,  and  when  the  street  was  improved  this  space 
was  left  by  the  city  with  no  improvements  whatever,  not  even  grass.  It  was 
necessary  for  the  property  owners  to  improve  the  condition  of  this  park,  and, 
therefore,  the  organization  was  formed  with  a  view  to  beautifying  the  park  and 
establishing  a  standard  in  the  carrying  forward  of  any  improvements  on  the 
street,  such  as  placing  shade  trees,  constructing  sidewalks,  placing  steps  from 
the  street  to  the  yard,  etc.  Present  membership,  sixty-eight  families.  Any 
property  owner  on  Glenmawr  Avenue  or  any  families  renting  property  located 
on  that  street  are  eligible  to  become  members. 

The  organization  was  able  to  have  an  ordinance  passed  through  council 
permitting  the  placing  of  the  sidewalks  within  two  feet  of  the  curb  rather  than 
five  feet  as  is  ordinarily  required,  which  avoided  the  cutting  off  of  the  lawns, 
thus  reducing  the  front  yard  space. 

The  park  which  was  simply  a  bare  space  of  ground,  has  been  made  level, 
fertilized,  and  a  good  standard  of  grass  obtained.  Seventy  shade  trees  have 
been  placed  along  the  edge  of  the  park  and  between  these  shrubbery  has  been 
placed.  At  the  ends  of  the  park  flower  beds  with  perennial  flowers  are  main¬ 
tained  and  gravel  walks  placed  at  intervals  across  the  park  to  avoid  persons 
having  to  cross  from  one  side  of  the  street  to  the  other  walking  on  the 
grass. 

An  ordinance  was  passed  last  fall  by  the  Council  of  the  City  of  Columbus, 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Association,  requiring  the  installation  of  five  cobble¬ 
stone  pillars,  on  which  cluster  lights  will  be  installed  through  the  center  of  the 
park.  The  grass  in  the  park  is  taken  care  of  by  the  residents  without  expense. 

This  Association  also  endeavors  to  have  at  their  business  meetings  social 
entertainments  for  the  residents  of  the  street  only,  and  by  so  doing  have  created 
a  friendly  feeling  among  the  residents  that  could  not  otherwise  have  existed. 

The  money  necessary  to  carry  on  the  improvements  that  have  been  made 
in  the  park  is  obtained  by  assessment  of  the  various  residents  of  the  street,  the 


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amount  being  collected  without  any  hardship,  and  there  is  always  money  in 
the  treasury  to  carry  on  improvements  that  might  be  authorized.1 

The  foregoing  organization  was  formed  in  the  spring  of  1914, 
its  meetings  are  held  monthly  at  the  home  of  one  of  the  residents 
of  the  street.  It  serves  an  area  of  about  two  city  blocks. 

The  Hilltop  neighborhood. — The  Hilltop  is  more  than  a  neigh¬ 
borhood;  it  is  a  city  within  a  city.  It  is  a  community  of  about 
15,000  people,  topographically  separated  from  the  city  proper.  It 
is  an  area  complete  in  itself,  having  its  own  schools,  churches,  stores, 
shops,  parks,  fire-hall,  social  clubs,  local  newspaper,  and  improve¬ 
ment  association,  which  is  really  equivalent  to  a  chamber  of 
commerce. 

The  Hilltop,  as  indicated  on  Map  I,  page  148,  lies  in  the  extreme 
western  end  of  the  city,  about  four  miles  west  of  the  state’s  Capitol. 
As  the  name  implies  the  Hilltop  is  a  promontory  rising  considerably 
above  the  “ flats”  which  separate  it  from  the  heart  of  the  city. 
The  division  now  comprises  an  area  of  several  square  miles  and 
includes  within  its  confines  the  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane. 

Comparatively  speaking  the  Hilltop  is  a  new  section  of  Colum¬ 
bus.  Its  chief  development  as  a  residential  area  has  taken  place 
during  the  past  fifteen  years,  but  once  available  for  settlement  its 
attractive  topographical  features  made  it  an  eldorado  for  the  better 
class  of  home-seekers,  with  the  result  that  it  is  now  a  city  of  new 
homes  clustered  around  the  few  historic  residences  which  graced 
the  landscape  in  days  gone  by.  Moreover,  it  is  a  region  of  consider¬ 
able  historic  importance.  Camp  Chase  of  Civil  War  renown  was 
located  here,  also  the  Confederate  Cemetery,  which  lies  in  the 
southwestern  part  of  the  district. 

Barring  a  small  Italian  neighborhood,  located  on  McKinley 
Avenue  at  the  rear  of  the  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  and  a  larger 
colored  colony  located  in  the  south  along  Sullivant  Avenue,  the 
Hilltop  is  primarily  inhabitated  by  white  American  stock,  the 
majority  of  whom  are  home-owners  of  the  more  prosperous  class. 
An  astonishingly  large  number  of  the  leading  public  men  of  the  city 
have  their  homes  in  this  region,  which  fact  doubtlessly  accounts, 
in  good  measure  at  least,  for  the  public  spirit  displayed  among  the 
residents  of  the  Hilltop. 

1  Letter  received  from  the  secretary,  January,  1920. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  361 


The  negro  neighborhood,  just  referred  to,  is  the  “fly  in  the  oint¬ 
ment”  with  respect  to  the  community  pride  of  the  people  of  the 
Hilltop.  This  colored  section,  covering  an  area  of  about  six  blocks, 
with  a  population  of  approximately  600  people,  is  not  a  recent 
development.  A  number  of  the  colored  families  have  resided  in 
this  spot  for  over  thirty  years,  but  a  fresh  influx  of  colored  settlers 
arrived  immediately  after  the  Springfield  riots  a  decade  or  so  ago. 
A  real  estate  dealer,  devoid  of  “social  vision,”  and  “greedy  for 
gain  ”  sold  his  property  to  these  people  with  the  result  that  they  are 
now  fixtures  in  the  community.  Aside,  however,  from  the  acute 
social  problems  arising  out  of  their  presence  in  the  schools,  the 
colored  people  live  to  themselves  and  do  not  come  in  contact  with 
the  general  social  life  of  the  community.  The  colored  neighborhood 
has  its  own  churches,  stores,  and  motion-picture  house,  and  the 
Camp  Chase  street-car  line  is  used  almost  exclusively  for  transpor¬ 
tation  to  and  from  the  city.  This  colored  neighborhood  is  one  of  the 
most  orderly  and  progressive  negro  localities  in  the  city.  According 
to  the  estimate  of  one  of  the  oldest  colored  residents,  75  per  cent  of 
the  families  own  their  homes;  and  it  is  a  matter  of  local  pride 
that  “no  one  has  been  sent  to  the  penitentiary  from  this  district 
during  the  past  twenty-five  years.” 

The  local  consciousness  of  the  residents  of  the  Hilltop  has 
manifested  itself  in  many  ways.  In  the  first  place  a  local  paper 
called  the  Hilltop  News  is  published  weekly  and  read  by  more  than 
“eight  thousand  Hilltoppers  every  week.”  This  sheet  is  the 
“official  organ  of  the  Hilltop  business  men”  and  carries  advertising 
and  news  items  of  local  interest.  It  also  serves  as  the  official 
spokesman  for  the  Hilltop  Improvement  Association,  an  organiza¬ 
tion  of  Hilltop  residents  designed  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the 
“Hilltop,  its  people,  and  their  homes.” 

The  Hilltop  Improvement  Association  was  organized  in  1911 
for  the  purpose  just  stated.  It  was  promoted  by  a  number  of  the 
most  enterprising  citizens  of  the  community  including  one  of  the 
city’s  most  prominent  councilmen.  No  local  organization  of  the 
city  has  been  more  active  in  the  promotion  of  local  interests,  or  has 
achieved  more  for  the  territory  served  than  the  Hilltop  Improvement 
Association.  Its  field  of  activities  has  included  negotiations  with 
the  city  council  for  the  procuring  of  local  satisfactions,  such  as  a 


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recreation  building,  street-car  accommodation,  city  deliveries,  etc. 
It  has  also  stimulated  local  pride  in  the  care  of  property  and  in  the 
repulsion  of  undesirable  commercial  encroachments,  and  at  the 
same  time  has  done  much  to  engender  a  feeling  of  neighborliness 
and  sociability  among  the  people. 

The  community  consciousness  among  the  people  of  the  Hilltop 
is  due  largely  to  the  peculiar  topographical  features  of  the  district 
which  give  it  a  unitary  character  quite  distinct  from  the  rest  of  the 
city.  Moreover  its  conflict  with  the  city  proper  in  regard  to  flood 
protection  measures  relative  to  the  flood  area  which  separates  it 
from  the  down-town  district,  has  resulted  in  the  development  of 
the  “we  feeling”  as  contrasted  with  the  rest  of  the  city.  In  addi¬ 
tion  to  this,  the  boosting  attitude  has  been  maintained  by  the 
comparatively  large  number  of  enterprising  public  citizens  who  have 
their  homes  in  this  district.  These  home-owners  appreciate  the 
significance  of  local  community  pride  and  consciously  attempt  to 
stimulate  it  in  their  locality. 

Conclusions . — From  a  study  of  these  and  other  experiments  in 
neighborhood  organization,  I  venture  the  following  conclusions 
concerning  neighborhood  work  in  general.  First,  that  neighbor¬ 
hood  sentiment  is  most  easily  engendered  where  the  physical  basis 
of  life  affords  a  unitary  character  sufficient  to  differentiate  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  from  the  larger  community.  Second,  neighborhood 
sentiment  thrives  best  where  there  is  a  homogeneity  and  stability 
of  population  accompanied  by  a  high  percentage  of  home  owner¬ 
ship.1  Third,  other  things  being  equal,  the  difficulty  of  maintaining 
local  interest  in  local  projects  varies  directly  with  the  extent  of 
territory  covered  and  the  number  of  families  included.  There  is 
considerable  evidence  to  show  that  a  street  more  than  two  blocks 
in  length  tends  to  divide  itself  into  subgroups,  especially  when  two 
different  street-car  lines  are  used  by  the  residents  in  communication 

1  According  to  our  general  test  of  stability  for  Columbus,  i.e.,  the  percentage  of 
the  1917  electors  who  re-registered  in  their  respective  precincts  in  1918,  the  organized 
neighborhoods  just  described  rank  comparatively  high  in  stability.  The  average 
re-registration  for  the  entire  city  was  58.6  per  cent  and  for  the  most  stable  precinct 
77.8  per  cent.  The  precinct  in  which  Oakland  and  Northwood  avenues  are  located 
had  a  re-registration  of  75.5  per  cent,  the  Ninth  Avenue  precinct  a  re-registration  of 
69.1  per  cent,  and  the  Glenmawr  precinct  64.9  per  cent. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  363 


with  the  down-town  district.  Fourth,  it  may  be  stipulated  that 
interest  in  the  most  obviously  beneficial  local  enterprises,  even  under 
the  most  favorable  conditions,  is  not  as  spontaneous  and  natural  as 
many  of  our  promoters  of  neighborhood  enterprises  seem  to  assume. 
In  each  experiment  in  neighborhood  organization  cited  above,  the 
interest  in  local  affairs  has  been  more  or  less  artificially  sustained 
by  the  “hard  work”  of  a  few  energetic  promoters. 

Nevertheless,  the  value  of  such  street  organization  cannot  be 
doubted.  No  one  who  has  visited  any  of  the  streets  which  have 
been  described  would  question  the  superior  merits  of  corporate 
action  over  the  haphazard  ways  of  traditional  individualism. 
Aside  from  the  social  benefits  accruing  from  local  collective  action, 
the  effect  on  real  estate  values  is  in  itself  an  important  consideration, 
and  one  which  real  estate  companies  are  beginning  to  appreciate.1 

1 1  have  been  informed  by  several  residents  of  the  streets  in  question  that  they 
have  been  offered  valuable  concessions  by  real  estate  companies  to  promote  similar 
organizations  in  new  residential  divisions  which  are  now  being  put  on  the  market. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  IN 
THE  CITY  OF  COLUMBUS,  OHIO 


r.  d.  mckenzie 

University  of  Washington 


ABSTRACT 

Description  of  neighborhood.  The  neighborhood  is  located  in  a  flood  plane  near 
the  center  of  the  city.  It  comprises  one  of  the  oldest  sections  of  the  city  and  has  been 
subject  to  periodic  floods  for  years  past.  It  is  inhabited  by  working-class  people, 
chiefly  of  American  origin.  Mobility  of  neighborhood  population.  The  neighborhood 
serves  as  a  reservoir  for  the  city’s  human  wastes.  Families  come  and  go  in  constant 
succession,  and  there  are  also  frequent  changes  of  residence  from  street  to  street  within 
the  neighborhood.  There  is  a  small  nucleus,  however,  of  stable  superior  families. 
The  comparative  absence  of  secondary  means  of  communication,  such  as  telephones 
and  automobiles,  makes  the  less  mobile  inhabitants — old  men,  women,  and  children — 
completely  dependent  upon  the  neighborhood  institutions  for  their  associational  life. 
Homes.  Most  of  the  homes  are  obsolete  both  in  structure  and  fixtures;  scarcely  io 
per  cent  have  electric  lights:  about  half  of  them  are  without  baths  or  indoor  toilets. 
Overcrowding  is  not  prevalent  except  in  alley  houses.  Family  life.  The  neighbor¬ 
hood  is  a  collectivity  of  very  unlike  family  groups.  Superior  wholesome  families  are 
frequently  found  living  next  door  to  disorderly  worthless  people.  Under  such  circum¬ 
stances  complete  avoidance  is  practiced.  The  superior  families  usually  represent 
early  settlers  who,  on  account  of  property  ties,  cannot  leave  their  undesirable  surround¬ 
ings.  Economic  condition.  This  district  represents  the  lowest  economic  level  in 
the  city.  Home  ownership  is  uncommon,  and  rents  average  less  than  fifteen  dollars 
per  month.  However  there  are  marked  differences  in  the  comparative  economic 
status  of  adjoining  families.  Family  groups  in  the  depth  of  poverty  are  frequently 
found  living  side  by  side  with  families  having  comfortable  incomes.  Leisure-time 
activities.  Most  of  the  homes  are  ill-equipped  with  facilities  for  the  fruitful  utilization 
of  leisure  time.  Reading  materials  are  scant  or  wanting;  musical  instruments  are 
found  only  in  a  small  percentage  of  the  homes.  Outdoor  leisure-time  activities.  The 
movies  are  the  most  popular  form  of  commercialized  recreation  for  mothers  and 
children.  The  elder  males  find  their  chief  enjoyment  in  the  neighborhood  saloons, 
while  the  youth,  for  the  most  part,  patronize  the  uptown  poolrooms  and  dance  halls. 


PART  II.  AN  ANALYSIS  OF  A  DISINTEGRATED  CITY 

NEIGHBORHOOD 

V.  DESCRIPTION  OF  NEIGHBORHOOD 

The  following  survey  was  undertaken  upon  the  suggestion  of 
the  Brotherhood  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  of  Columbus. 
For  a  number  of  years  the  church  has  been  supporting  a  social 
settlement  house,  located  on  Broad  Street,  in  the  heart  of  the 
region  west  of  the  river.  With  a  view  to  extending  its  activities 
on  a  more  scientific  and  efficient  scale,  the  Brotherhood  voted  in 


486 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  487 


the  spring  of  1919  that  a  survey  of  the  neighborhood  surrounding 
the  social  settlement  be  made  and  a  program  of  action  outlined  in 
conformity  with  the  findings.  The  writer  was  selected  to  engineer 
the  survey.  The  field  work  was  done  by  advanced  students  in  his 
classes  in  sociology  at  the  state  university. 

The  actual  field  work  of  the  survey  falls  into  three  divisions: 
first,  a  house-to-house  canvass  of  one  thousand  households  located 
in  the  neighborhood  just  indicated.  An  attempt  was  made  to 


reach  every  home  in  this  district,  but  frequently  the  house  was 
empty  when  the  investigator  called,  and  although  second  visits 
were  made  in  most  cases,  still  many  households  were  thus  unavoid¬ 
ably  omitted.  In  the  second  place  a  study  was  made  of  all  the 
neighborhood  institutions — churches,  schools,  industries,  and  of  all 
the  forms  of  commercialized  recreation.  And  lastly,  special  inter¬ 
views  were  held  with  about  twenty  of  the  oldest  residents  of  the 
district  in  order  to  obtain  data  concerning  the  history,  leading 
changes,  and  dominant  forces  in  the  neighborhood. 

The  neighborhood  that  we  are  about  to  describe  is  located  in  the 
“  flats  ”  lying  immediately  west  of  the  central  part  of  the  city.  As 
indicated  on  Map  VI,  the  region  in  question  is  bounded  on 


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THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


three  sides  by  a  loop  of  the  Scioto  River.  It  comprises  a  low 
flood  plane  stretching  west  in  triangular  shape  for  about  three 
miles  to  the  Hilltop  district.  The  eastern  end  of  the  district,  or 
apex  of  the  triangle,  is  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  width,  while 
the  western  base  is  about  two  miles  wide.  This  district  has  been 
subject  to  periodic  floods,  occurring,  according  to  reports  of  the 
oldest  inhabitants,  about  every  fifteen  years.  The  most  serious  of 
these  floods,  in  the  memory  of  the  oldest  residents,  took  place  in 
the  spring  of  1913  when  the  entire  eastern  half  of  the  district  was 
for  a  few  days  covered  by  water  from  six  to  ten  feet  in  depth. 

This  neighborhood  comprises  one  of  the  oldest  sections  of  the 
city  of  Columbus.  The  central  part  of  it  was  originally  known  as 
the  village  of  Franklinton;  the  old  county  court  building  was 
located  at  the  comer  of  Sandusky  and  Broad  streets,  the  present 
site  of  the  Franklinton  School.  Sullivant  Avenue,  the  southern 
boundary  line  of  the  neighborhood,  is  named  after  Lucas  Sullivant, 
the  original  owner  of  the  “ bottoms”  lying  west  of  the  river.  In 
the  early  days  this  district  was  so  swampy  and  so  undesirable  for 
habitation  that  Mr.  Sullivant  gave  lots  to  settlers  to  induce  them 
to  come  and  reside  there.  Hence  Gift  Street  got  the  name  it 
still  retains. 

The  neighborhood  was  originally  inhabited  by  “plain  working 
people.”  Broad  Street  was  the  main  thoroughfare  and,  in  the 
opinion  of  many  of  the  old  timers,  did  a  much  more  flourishing 
business  twenty  years  ago  than  it  does  at  present.  The  eastern 
section  of  the  neighborhood,  lying  immediately  west  of  the  river, 
was,  in  the  early  days,  known  as  “Middletown”  and  was  considered 
by  the  people  living  farther  west  as  a  “rough”  section.  The  local 
differentiation  has,  however,  faded  away;  only  a  few  of  the  old 
settlers  seem  to  be  familiar  with  the  implication  of  the  early  local 
distinction. 

There  is  general  consensus  of  opinion  among  the  older  settlers 
that  the  neighborhood  made  a  rapid  decline  immediately  following 
the  flood  of  1913.  At  that  time  many  of  the  more  prosperous 
families  moved  to  other  parts  of  the  city,  especially  to  the  new 
addition  opened  up  just  then  on  the  Hilltop.  Real  estate  prices 
declined  rapidly,  dropping  to  one-third  or  one-half  their  previous 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  489 


values.  This  in  turn  brought  about  an  influx  of  colored  and  poor 
white  families,  with  the  consequent  further  deterioration  of  the 
neighborhood. 

The  area  surveyed  includes  eleven  precincts,  which  in  1918  had 
a  total  registered  electorate  of  i,824.1  The  city’s  registered  elec¬ 
torate  for  that  year  was  45,854,  or  approximately  one-sixth  of  the 
estimated  population  of  the  city  as  a  whole.  Figuring  on  this 
basis  the  district  covered  by  our  survey  has  a  total  population  of 
approximately  11,000.  The  one- thousand  households  visited  had 
a  total  population  of  4,176,  which  is  considerably  over  one- third  of 
the  estimated  population  of  the  entire  neighborhood.  Table  III 
gives  the  distribution  of  the  population  according  to  age  and  sex. 


TABLE  III 

Age  and  Sex  Distribution  of  Population  of  Neighborhood  in  Comparison 

with  That  of  City  as  a  Whole 


Age 

Male 

Female 

Total 

Percentac 

Gr 

Neighbor¬ 

hood 

.e  in  Each 
oup 

City* 

Under  5 . 

215 

242 

457 

IO.9 

7-9 

5-9 . 

216 

229 

445 

10.6 

7-4 

10-14 . 

216 

198 

414 

9.9 

7-4 

15-19 . 

152 

197 

349 

8.4 

9.1 

20-24 . 

158 

182 

340 

8.1 

11 . 1 

25-34 . 

318 

343 

661 

15-9 

20.6 

35-44 . 

253 

3°i 

554 

13-3 

15-5 

45  and  over . 

467 

418 

885 

21 . 2 

20.8 

Unknown . 

40 

3i 

7i 

1-7 

0. 2 

Total . 

2035 

2141 

4176 

100 

100 

*  U.S.  Census,  1910. 


A  few  interesting  facts  are  revealed  by  this  table.  For  instance 
the  ratio  of  small  children  for  the  neighborhood  is  considerably 
higher,  and  the  ratio  of  adults,  in  the  most  productive  years  of  life, 
considerably  lower  than  for  the  city  as  a  whole.  In  this  area  the 
percentage  of  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age  is  31.4  as  against 
22.7  for  the  city  as  given  in  the  1910  Census.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  percentage  of  adults  in  the  age  group  15-45  is  only  45.7  for  the 

1  Thirteenth  Census  of  United  States,  III  (1910),  399. 


490 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


neighborhood  in  contrast  to  56.3  for  the  city.  Again  the  proportion 
of  the  sexes  in  the  neighborhood  is  quite  different  from  that  given 
in  the  1910  Census  for  the  city  as  a  whole.  In  the  district  surveyed 
there  are  but  95  males  to  every  100  females  as  against  101.5  males 
to  every  100  females  in  Columbus,  and  104.4  males  to  every  100 
females  for  the  state  of  Ohio.1 

TABLE  IV 

Place  of  Birth  of  White  Adults  18  Years  and  Over 


Place  of  Birth 

Husband 

Wife 

Oth 

Male 

ERS 

Female 

Total 

Columbus . 

179 

194 

135 

136 

644 

Elsewhere  in  Ohio . 

418 

462 

185 

155 

1,220 

Elsewhere  in  U.S . 

147 

157 

So 

51 

405 

Germany . 

21 

19 

4 

I 

45 

Italy . 

17 

15 

1 

2 

35 

Ireland . 

1 1 

1  ^ 

2 

26 

Great  Britain . 

11 

O 

7 

1 

4 

23 

Austria . 

7 

7 

4 

1 

19 

Switzerland . 

4 

7. 

1 

8 

Roumania . 

2 

O 

2 

1 

1 

2 

India . 

1 

1 

Australia . 

1 

1 

France . 

1 

I 

2 

Unknown . 

34 

3i 

36 

25 

126 

Total . 

854 

909 

420 

376 

2,559 

It  is  quite  evident  that  this  is  predominantly  an  American 
section  of  the  city;  26.5  per  cent  of  the  adults  whose  place  of  birth 
is  known  were  born  in  Columbus,  76.6  in  Ohio,  and  only  6.7  per 
cent  were  born  in  countries  other  than  the  United  States.  Of 
those  born  outside  of  the  United  States  only  hi,  or  4.5  per  cent  of 
the  total  population,  come  from  non-English-speaking  countries  and 
these  represent  six  different  nationalities.  With  the  exception  of  a 
small  Italian  neighborhood  lying  north  of  the  subway  on  Rogers 
Avenue,  there  is  no  nucleus  of  foreign  born  in  the  entire  district. 

1  These  figures  show  that  the  population  of  the  neighborhood  contains  more  than  a 
normal  distribution  of  the  economically  weaker  age  and  sex  groups.  Economic 
forces  tend  to  distribute  a  city’s  population  according  to  the  relative  strength  of 
families  in  the  competitive  process. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  491 


Of  our  one  thousand  families  forty- three  were  colored.  If  these 
were  segregated  in  a  single  section  of  the  district  the  number  would 
be  of  minor  significance  as  it  comprises  such  a  small  percentage  of 
the  total  population.  But  on  the  contrary  these  colored  families 
are  scattered  over  a  large  part  of  the  neighborhood.  Table  V  pre¬ 
sents  a  list  of  the  streets  on  which  they  dwell. 


Street 


Chapel. . . 
Capital.  .  . 
Cherry . . . 
Grubb . . . 
Jones .... 
Lucas.  .  .  . 
McDowell 
McKinley 


TABLE  V 

Location  of  Colored  Families 


Number  of  Families 

Street 

Number  of  Families 

6 

Mill . 

1 

1 

Rich . 

I 

2 

State . 

I 

3 

Scott . 

2 

3 

Sandusky . 

4 

2 

Starling . 

5 

8 

Town . 

1 

2 

W.  Broad . 

1 

A  glance  at  the  map  of  the  neighborhood  (p.  487)  will  show  that 
colored  people  are  to  be  found  on  almost  every  street  from  the  river 
as  far  west  as  Sandusky  Street,  and,  north  of  Broad  Street,  as  far 
west  as  the  survey  extended. 

Most  of  the  colored  families  have  made  their  way  into  this 
district  since  the  flood  of  1913.  Of  the  forty- three  households 
reporting,  only  two  have  been  in  the  neighborhood  more  than  six 
years;  thirty- two,  or  74.4  per  cent,  have  been  in  the  neighborhood 
less  than  three  years;  and  nineteen,  or  44.2  per  cent,  have  been  in 
the  neighborhood  less  than  one  year.  Most  of  these  colored  people 
are  recent  arrivals  from  the  south,  only  nine  of  the  heads  of  house¬ 
holds  were  born  in  Ohio,  eight  came  from  Virginia,  six  from  Georgia, 
four  from  Kentucky,  three  from  Alabama,  and  the  remaining  thir¬ 
teen  from  various  other  states  throughout  the  Union.* 1 

1  My  reason  for  discussing  the  colored  family  in  detail  is  to  emphasize  its  signifi¬ 
cance  from  the  standpoint  of  neighborhood  disintegration  and  decline.  There  is 
probably  no  more  valid  criterion  of  the  disappearance  of  neighborhood  sentiment 
in  any  locality  inhabited  by  American  people  than  to  find  colored  families  dispersed 
here  and  there  among  the  white  families.  Where  any  degree  of  neighborhood  con¬ 
sciousness  exists  social  pressure  invariably  keeps  the  colored  family  out;  but  in  the 
absence  of  local  sentiment,  the  advent  of  the  negro  drives  the  more  enterprising  white 
folk  to  look  for  new  quarters. 


492 


TEE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


VI.  MOBILITY  OF  NEIGHBORHOOD1 

We  have  already  discussed  the  question  of  mobility  with  refer¬ 
ence  to  its  more  general  aspects  from  the  standpoint  of  the  city  as 
a  whole.  According  to  our  general  test  of  mobility,  namely  the 
percentage  of  the  1917  electors  who  failed  to  re-register  in  their 


TABLE  VI 

Home  Ownership  by  Streets 


Street 

Owner 

Renter 

Percentage  of 
Owners 

Eastern  section . 

102 

367 

21 . 8 

Belle . 

3 

19 

13.6 

Starling . 

2 

15 

11. 7 

McDowell . 

12 

37 

24.4 

May . 

3 

3i 

8.8 

Mill . 

3 

17 

15.0 

Gift . 

6 

35 

15-3 

Broad . * . 

7 

21 

25.0 

Capital . 

0 

11 

00.0 

State . 

32 

84 

27-5 

Chapel . 

12 

32 

27.2 

Town . 

i5 

45 

25.0 

Walnut . 

7 

22 

24.0 

Western  section . 

138 

226 

38.0 

Skidmore . 

20 

30 

40.0 

Grubb . 

11 

28 

28.2 

Sandusky . 

18 

39 

3i.5 

Davis . 

7 

13 

35-o 

Souder . 

8 

9 

47.0 

Richard . 

10 

28 

26.3 

Martin . 

14 

12 

53-8 

Hawkes . 

13 

12 

52.0 

Avondale . 

8 

9 

49.0 

Rich . .  . 

15 

35 

30.0 

Sullivant . 

14 

11 

56.0 

Total . 

240 

593 

28 . 8 

respective  precincts  in  1918,  the  eastern  end  of  the  neighborhood 
under  consideration  comprises  one  of  the  most  mobile  sections  of 
the  city.  The  two  precincts  which  occupy  the  territory  between 
the  railroad  tracks  and  the  river  lost  almost  two-thirds  of  their 
registered  voters  during  the  short  period  of  one  year.  However, 
the  neighborhood  increases  in  stability  the  farther  west  one  goes. 

JThe  reader  is  referred  to  Map  III  ( Amer .  lour,  of  Sociol.,  XXVII  [September, 
1921],  163)  for  a  general  comparison  of  the  mobility  of  this  neighborhood  with  that 
of  other  sections  of  the  city. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE 


493 


The  precincts  lying  west  of  the  railroad  tracks,  with  one  exception, 
have  a  re-registration  of  electors  of  over  50  per  cent.  This  sec¬ 
tional  difference  in  mobility  is  further  emphasized  by  the  difference 
in  the  percentage  of  home  ownership  for  the  two  divisions  of  the 
neighborhood.  For  instance  only  21.8  per  cent  of  the  homes 
between  Skidmore  Street  and  the  river  are  owned  by  their  present 
occupants,  as  against  38.1  per  cent  for  the  region  lying  imme¬ 
diately  west  of  Skidmore  Street.  Table  VI  indicates  the  varying 
percentages  of  home  ownership,  by  streets,  for  the  two  divisions 
of  the  neighborhood. 

With  respect  to  change  of  residence,  Table  VII  gives  the 
length  of  time  each  family  has  lived  in  its  present  home,  in  the 


TABLE  VII 

Comparative  Mobility  of  Two  City  Neighborhoods 


Years 

Columbus 

Seattle* 

House 

Neighborhood 

City 

House 

Neighborhood 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

No. 

Per¬ 

centage 

0-  1 . 

237 

23-7 

146 

14.6 

5i 

5-1 

897 

35-9 

477 

23-4 

1-  2 . 

158 

15-8 

99 

9.9 

33 

3-3 

447 

17.9 

3 11 

15-3 

2-3 . 

106 

10.6 

88 

8.8 

47 

4-7 

269 

10.8 

228 

11. 4 

3-4 . 

102 

10. 2 

89 

8.9 

4i 

4.1 

155 

6.2 

135 

6.6 

4“  5 . 

46 

4.6 

40 

4.0 

25 

2-5 

86 

3-4 

92 

4-5 

5~  6 . 

44 

4.4 

46 

4.6 

30 

3-o 

92 

3-7 

101 

4.9 

6-  7 . 

53 

5-3 

52 

5-2 

3i 

3-i 

75 

3-i 

79 

3-9 

7-8 . 

15 

i-5 

28 

2.8 

23 

2-3 

78 

3-i 

94 

4.6 

8-9 . 

16 

1.6 

28 

2.8 

22 

2 . 2 

73 

2.9 

76 

3-7 

9-10 . 

17 

1-7 

i7- 

1.7 

14 

i-4 

45 

1 . 8 

67 

3-4 

10-15 . 

84 

8.4 

104 

10.4 

106 

10.6 

200 

8.0 

235 

11  -5 

15-20 . 

37 

3-7 

82 

8.2 

ii5 

11  •  5 

53 

2.1 

88 

4-3 

20  and  over 

85 

8-5 

181 

18. 1 

462 

46. 2 

28 

1 . 1 

52 

2-5 

Totals.. . 

1,000 

100 

1,000 

100 

1,000 

100 

2,498 

100 

2,035 

100 

*  The  neighborhood  studied  comprises  about  a  square  mile  lying  immediately  adjacent  to  the  campus 
of  the  University  of  Washington.  It  is  a  neighborhood  of  home  owners  of  the  middle  economic  classes. 
Fraternities  and  lodging  bouses  were  not  included  in  this  survey.  The  data  were  collected  by  the  local 
Y.M.C.A.  as  part  of  the  Interchurch  World  Survey  in  the  winter  of  1920. 

neighborhood,  and  in  the  city,  and  compares  the  result  with  that 
of  a  similar  study  made  of  a  neighborhood  in  a  higher  economic 
area  in  the  city  of  Seattle,  Washington. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  mobility  of  both  of  these  neighborhoods 
is  very  high  indeed.  However,  our  broken-down  neighborhood  in 


494 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


Columbus  is  even  less  mobile  than  the  higher  economic  neighbor¬ 
hood  of  Seattle.  In  the  former  60.3  per  cent  of  the  families  were 
occupants  of  their  homes  for  less  than  four  years,  and  42.2  per  cent 
residents  of  the  neighborhood  less  than  four  years,  while  in  the 
latter  neighborhood  70.8  per  cent  of  the  families  have  lived  less 
than  four  years  in  their  present  homes  and  56.5  per  cent  less  than 
four  years  in  the  neighborhood. 

Although  the  Columbus  neighborhood  has  a  large  fringe  of 
mobile  families,  still  it  also  has  a  considerable  stable  nucleus.  Over 
18  per  cent  of  the  one  thousand  families  visited  have  been  residents 
of  the  neighborhood  for  twenty  years  or  more,  and  of  these  families, 
8.5  per  cent  have  lived  in  their  present  homes  throughout  this 
period.  This  stable  group  forms  the  backbone  of  the  neighborhood. 
Practically  all  of  these  householders  are  home-owners,  and  many  of 
them  are  marooned  superior  families  who  are  held  in  the  neighbor¬ 
hood  on  account  of  property  ties. 

The  data  for  Seattle  are  not  comparable  in  this  respect,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  the  district  surveyed  is  relatively  new.  Most  of  the 
present  homes  have  been  erected  during  the  past  fifteen  years.  The 
high  mobility,  however,  during  the  last  five  years  is  not  entirely  due 
to  the  erection  of  new  dwellings,  inasmuch  as  the  older  settled  sec¬ 
tions  of  the  district  show  almost  as  high  a  mobility  as  the  newer 
streets. 

Unfortunately  we  have  no  information  concerning  the  length  of 
time  the  Seattle  families  have  been  residents  of  the  city.  It  is 
interesting  to  note,  however,  that  considerably  over  half,  57.7  per 
cent,  of  the  male  heads  of  households  in  our  Columbus  neighborhood 
have  been  residents  of  the  city  for  fifteen  years  or  more.  It  is 
quite  evident,  therefore,  that  the  changes  of  residence  among  this 
economic  class  of  the  Columbus  population  are  intra-community 
or  intra-neighborhood  rather  than  from  one  community  to  another.1 

Change  of  family  residence,  however,  does  not  tell  the  whole 
story  concerning  the  mobility  of  the  population  of  our  Columbus 

1  Elsa  G.  Herzfeld  found  from  a  study  of  a  group  of  tenement-house  families  in 
New  York  “that  the  average  length  of  residence  is  about  a  year  and  a  half,”  and 
that  many  of  the  moves  are  from  “house  to  house  in  the  same  block.” — Family  Mono¬ 
graphs  (1905),  P-  48. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE 


495 


neighborhood.  It  is  also  necessary  to  take  into  account  the  number 
of  detached  or  floating  persons  who  live  as  boarders  or  lodgers  in 
the  neighborhood.  Our  house-to-house  canvass  shows  that  there 
are  417  such  persons,  236  males  and  181  females,  scattered  among 
267  of  the  1,000  homes  visited.  This  floating  element  is  to  be 
found  for  the  most  part  in  the  eastern  end  of  the  district  where 
the  leading  factories  are  located.  Starling  Street  especially,  due  to 
its  proximity  to  the  railroad  and  the  Godman  Shoe  Factory  has 
become  a  center  for  boarding  and  lodging  houses. 

The  relatively  high  physical  mobility  of  the  population  of  this 
neighborhood  is  somewhat  counteracted  by  the  lack  of  adequate 
means  for  communication.  As  was  indicated  elsewhere  in  this 
study  mobility  depends  upon  many  factors  other  than  the  mere 
change  of  residence.1  Time  and  means  for  getting  about  are  also 
important  considerations.  Thus  people  living  in  the  lower  eco¬ 
nomic  areas  may  have  a  high  degree  of  mobility,  so  far  as  change  of 
residence  is  concerned,  and  still  be  very  much  more  dependent  upon 
their  neighborhood  institutions  than  are  the  home-owners  of  the 
more  stable  and  economically  superior  residential  districts.  The 
telephone,  the  automobile,  and  the  business  contacts  give  to 
the  latter  an  independence  of  neighborhood  organizations  which  the 
former  do  not  possess.  For  this  reason  we  have  attempted  to 
ascertain  the  facilities  at  the  disposal  of  the  people  within  this 
neighborhood  for  secondary  means  of  communication. 

Only  77  or  7.7  per  cent  of  the  1,000  householders  interviewed 
reported  the  ownership  of  an  automobile.2  And  practically  all 
of  these  machines  are  owned  by  families  living  on  or  west  of 
Sandusky  Street.  In  regard  to  the  possession  of  telephones,  289  or 
29.8  per  cent  of  the  households  had  this  means  of  communication. 
This  number  of  telephones  may  seem  rather  high,  considering  the 
low  economic  status  of  the  neighborhood,  but,  as  will  be  shown 

*Cf.  Amer.  Jour,  of  Sociol.,  XXVII  (September,  1921),  167. 

2  The  total  number  of  persons  in  the  1,000  households  was  4,176;  this  leaves  one 
machine  for  every  56.8  inhabitants.  According  to  the  Goodrich  Rubber  Company 
report,  there  was,  in  1919,  one  motor-vehicle  for  every  10.4  inhabitants  in  the  state 
of  Ohio;  and  one  for  every  14.2  inhabitants  in  the  United  States.  Cf.  J.  Phelan, 
Readings  in  Rural  Sociology  (1920),  p.  256. 


496 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


later,  the  neighborhood  is  not  a  homogeneous  economic  unit.  On 
the  contrary  it  represents  a  mixture  of  families  with  respectable 
incomes  living  side  by  side  with  families  who  are  in  the  utmost 
poverty. 

If  is  difficult  to  measure  the  degree  of  dependence  of  this  popu¬ 
lation  upon  its  neighborhood  institutions.  The  proximity  of  the 
region  to  the  heart  of  the  city  makes  the  uptown  institutions 
easily  accessible  to  those  with  the  means  and  desire  to  attend. 
That  the  different  age  and  sex  groups  vary  considerably  in  the 
degree  to  which  they  patronize  the  uptown  institutions  and 
places  of  amusement  is  shown  by  the  facts  brought  to  light  in  our 
study  of  the  neighborhood  churches  and  commercialized  forms  of 
recreation.  Small  children,  mothers,  and  the  older  men  are  almost 
entirely  dependent  upon  the  neighborhood  for  their  social  and 
recreational  life. 

VII.  ECONOMIC  STATUS  AND  OCCUPATIONAL  LITE 

The  neighborhood  surveyed  falls  in  Wards  9  and  10;  these  two 
wards,  it  will  be  recalled,  comprise  the  lowest  economic  area  in  the 
city.  Ward  9,  which  includes  the  eastern  end  of  the  neighborhood, 
represents  the  lowest  economic  rating  of  all  the  wards  in  the  city, 
having  an  average  per-elector  household-furniture  appraisal,  in 
1917,  of  only  $34.11.  Ward  10,  in  which  the  major  part  of  the 
neighborhood  is  located,  has  the  second  lowest  rating  with  an 
average  household  furniture  listing  of  $54.66. 

Another  index  to  the  comparative  economic  status  of  different 
sections  of  a  city  is  the  average  monthly  rentals  paid  per  dwelling. 
Unfortunately  we  have  no  data  at  hand  to  enable  us  to  compare 
rentals  of  this  neighborhood  with  those  of  other  regions  in  the  city. 
However,  the  facts  revealed  in  Table  VIII  will  convince  the  reader 
of  the  very  low  rental  level  of  the  territory  surveyed. 

Of  the  656  rented  homes  concerning  which  we  have  information 
both  as  to  rent  and  number  of  rooms,  only  9,  or  1.4  per  cent,  rent 
for  more  than  $20  per  month,  while  524,  or  79.9  per  cent,  rent  for 
$15  or  less.  The  average  monthly  rent  per  dwelling  is  $13.90  while 
the  average  number  of  rooms  is  five. 

Table  IX  gives  a  classification  of  the  occupations  of  the  male 
heads  of  households. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  497 


The  most  striking  feature  brought  to  light  by  this  somewhat 
detailed  enumeration  of  employments  is  the  industrial  character  of 
the  neighborhood.  This  is  a  region  where  the  soft  collar  and  duck 
overalls  predominate.  Professional  and  business  men  form  but  a 
very  small  percentage  of  the  heads  of  households.  In  this  respect  the 
neighborhood  differs  widely  from  the  higher  economic  areas  of  the 
city.  This  fact  is  demonstrated  by  the  lists  (Table  X,  p.  499) 
of  occupations  of  heads  of  households  taken  in  order  from  two  streets 
in  other  sections  of  the  city. 


TABLE  VIII 

Rents  per  Month  in  Relation  to  Size  of  Dwelling* 


Rents  per  month 

No.  of  Households  Occupying  Each  Specified  Number  of  Rooms 

Total 

1 

2 

3 

4 

■> 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

Under  $5 . 

I 

2 

2 

I 

7 

$  3—$  6 . 

2 

c; 

2 

/ 

0 

$  6— $  7 . 

2 

14 

6 

I 

1 

I 

V 

$  7-$  8 . 

14 

24 

6 

0 

44 

$  8-$  0 . 

7 

19 

10 

4 

1 

41 

$  Q-SlO . 

Q 

64 

44 

14 

1  gi 

$IO— $11 . 

I 

20 

20 

A  O  A 

46 

$11— $1 2 . 

21 

C3 

2A 

2 

IOO 

$I2-$Ig . 

II 

O  O 

18 

7 

I 

37 

$13— $14 . 

2 

2 

10 

1  3 

2 

O  / 

“2  2 

$14— $1  3 . 

2 

21 

23 

2 

I 

I 

0 

C  2 

$1 $l6 . 

K 

27 

2 

I 

I 

0 

41 

$l6— $17 . 

2 

< 

8 

I 

I 

1  A 

1 7 

$17— $18 . 

I 

8 

21 

3 

2 

$l8— $IQ . 

1 

4 

I 

I 

7 

$IQ— $20 . 

1 

14 

c 

2 

I 

/ 

2  *2 

$20  and  over.  . . 

4 

O 

1 

2 

I 

1 

9 

Total . 

I 

7 

54 

l8l 

203 

173 

19 

II 

6 

1 

656 

*  It  must  be  kept  in  mind,  however,  that  these  figures  represent  conditions  in  May,  1919,  before  the 
general  rise  of  rents  in  Columbus. 


Although  the  west  side  neighborhood  is  primarily  a  working¬ 
man’s  district,  still  it  by  no  means  represents  a  uniform  standard  of 
living.  Many  of  the  heads  of  households,  such  as  skilled  laborers, 
railroad  conductors,  etc.,  belong  to  the  higher  income  groups  and 
could  easily  afford  to  live  in  one  of  the  superior  economic  areas  of 
the  city.  Proximity  to  work  doubtless  accounts  for  their  residence 
here.1  But  on  the  other  hand,  the  large  number  of  different  forms 

1  Fifty-two  per  cent  of  the  adult  male  workers  in  our  one  thousand  households 
walk  to  and  from  their  work. 


498 


TEE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


TABLE  IX 

Occupations  of  Male  Heads  of  Households 


Working  for  Self 


Barber . 

Blacksmith .  . . 

Baker . 

Butcher . 

Carpenter.  .  . . 
Contractor.  .  . 

Grocer . 

Junkman.  .  .  . 

Lawyer . 

Paper  hanger . 

Painter . 

Peddler . 

Plasterer . 

Repair  man .  . 
Real  estate .  .  . 
Saloon  keeper. 
Small  business 
Shoemaker.  .  . 
Taxi  driver.  . . 

Tailor . 

Tinsmith . 


Total 


No. 

Working  for  Others — 
Railroads 

2 

Baggage  man . 

3 

Blacksmith . 

i 

Brakeman . 

5 

Boilermaker . 

2 

Car  inspector . 

5 

Clerk . 

4 

Conductor . 

I 

Engineer . 

I 

Expressman . 

4 

Fireman . 

5 

Foreman . 

2 

Freight  man . 

2 

Hostler . 

I 

Laborer . 

3 

Lineman . 

4 

Machinist . 

8 

Night  watchman . 

i 

Railroader . 

i 

Repair  man . 

i 

Switchman . 

2 

Transfer  man . 

Train  caller . 

58 

Total . 

No. 


3 

3 

n 

5 

3 

7 

16 
ii 

1 

3 

4 

2 
2 

33 

2 

14 

2 

17 
2 
2 
I 
I 


145 


Working  for  Others — 
General 

No. 

Working  for  Others — 
General 

No. 

Working  for  Others — 
General 

No. 

Actor . 

i 

Dver . 

i 

Painter . 

o 

Bartender . 

8 

Electrician . 

7 

Paper  hanger .... 

Barber . 

4 

Engineer . 

30 

Penitentiary  guard 

3 

Boiler  maker . 

7. 

Fireman . 

1 1 

Plumber . 

8 

Blacksmith . 

2 

Foreman . 

27 

Policeman . 

Q 

Buffer . 

o 

c 

Furnace  man . 

cr 

Printer . 

I 

Butcher . 

6 

Hotel  clerk . 

4 

Shipping  clerk .... 

7 

Bookbinder . 

6 

Insur.  salesman .  . 

2 

Soldier . 

4 

Bookkeeper . 

i 

Inspector . 

o 

4 

Salesman . 

14 

Bank  teller . 

i 

Ice  man . 

12 

Shoemaker . 

25 

Carpenter . 

21 

Janitor . 

4 

St.-car  motorman. 

11 

Clerk . 

7.  C 

Laborer . 

14 

Solderer . 

3 

Cabinet-maker  .  . . 

O  J 

2 

Lineman . 

4 

Steel  worker . 

21 

Candy  maker . 

2 

Laundry  man .  .  . 

2 

Tinsmith . 

1 

Cook . 

2 

Lamp  maker . 

i 

Tailor . 

2 

Collector . 

4 

Meter  reader . 

4 

Taxi  driver . 

1 

Cooper . 

Machinist . 

Truck  driver . 

30 

Chauffeur . 

o 

Molder . 

12 

Undertaker . 

1 

Chemist . 

o 

2 

Marble  worker.  . . 

i 

Window  trimmer. 

1 

Decorator . 

2 

Mail  carrier . 

4 

Retired . 

10 

Detective . 

I 

Mason . 

C 

Unknown . 

48 

2 

TVfpat  nark  or 

J 

6 

Druggist . 

i 

Night  watchman.. 

7 

Total . 

631 

THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE 


499 


of  employment  represented  here  indicate  that  this  neighborhood  is 
not  a  collectivity  of  workers  grouped  around  some  dominant 
industry  such  as  we  find  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  South  Columbus 
Steel  Works  or  in  the  stockyard  district  of  Chicago. 

Of  the  various  industries  represented  in  the  neighborhood  the 
railroads  employ  the  largest  number  of  the  heads  of  households. 

TABLE  X 


Street  A,  Ward  is 


Occupation 

No. 

Building  contractor . 

2 

Business  man . 

10 

Engineer . 

3 

Lawyer . 

1 

Manufacturer . 

1 

Newspaper  editor . 

1 

Night  chief  of  police . 

1 

Physician . 

2 

Restaurant  proprietor . 

1 

Traveling  salesman . 

7 

University  professor . 

4 

Street  B,  Ward  16 


Occupation 

No. 

Attorney . 

3 

Automobile  dealer . 

3 

Building  contractor . 

1 

Clerk . 

4 

Conductor,  steam  R.R . 

3 

Electrical  engineer . 

1 

Manufacturer . 

2 

Real  estate  dealer . 

1 

Retired . 

1 

Superintendent  R.R . 

1 

Traveling  salesman . 

4 

University  professor . 

1 

Wholesale  merchant . 

4 

TABLE  XI 


Name  of  Industry 

No.  of  Employees 

Percentage 
Resident  in 
Neighbor¬ 
hood 

Total 

Male 

Female 

Godman  Shoe  Co . 

550 

230 

220 

25.0 

Crystal  Ice  Co . 

135 

130 

5 

90.0 

Doddington  Lumber  Co. . . . 

IOI 

IOO 

1 

25.0 

Our  survey  shows  that  145  of  the  leading  male  breadwinners  are 
engaged  in  some  form  or  other  of  railroad  employment.  The  God- 
man  Shoe  Factory  comes  second  employing  30,  and  the  Crystal  Ice 
Company  next,  furnishing  work  to  only  12  heads  of  households. 

A  survey  of  the  main  industries  of  the  neighborhood,  all  of 
which  are  located  in  the  northeastern  end  between  the  river  and 
McDowell  Street,  gives  the  information  presented  in  Table  XI, 
with  respect  to  the  number  of  employees  and  the  percentage  of 
them  residing  within  the  neighborhood. 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


500 


In  regard  to  unemployment  we  succeeded  in  obtaining  infor¬ 
mation  concerning  865  male  heads  of  households.  Of  this  number 
331,  or  4 1. 1  per  cent,  reported  being  off  work  for  a  period  of  seven 
days  or  more  during  the  first  three  months  of  the  present  year 
(1919);  and  no,  or  13.6  per  cent,  reported  being  idle  in  this  same 
period  thirty  days  or  more.  Of  the  causes  given  for  unemploy¬ 
ment  26.7  per  cent  reported  sickness,  35.1  per  cent  reported  lack 
of  work,  and  the  remaining  number,  various  other  causes  such  as 
visiting,  etc. 

Our  house-to-house  canvass  shows  that  113  mothers  work  out¬ 
side  the  home  for  remuneration.  These  are  distributed  among  25 
different  types  of  employment,  day  work  and  the  shoe  factory 
claiming  the  largest  percentages. 


Map  VII 

The  87  official  relief  cases,  the  distribution  of  which  is  marked 
on  our  neighborhood  map,  do  not  give  an  accurate  conception  of 
the  extent  of  poverty  within  the  district.  They  merely  indicate 
the  number  of  families  within  the  neighborhood  who  were  actually 
obtaining  relief  from  official  sources  at  the  time  of  our  investigation. 
Had  we  taken  the  cases  for  a  three-year  period  instead  of  one,  the 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  501 

spots  on  the  map  would  have  given  the  appearance  of  almost  solid 
black.  Of  course  but  a  small  percentage  of  the  families  below  the 
poverty  line  actually  come  to  the  attention  of  the  relief  agencies  of 
the  city.  My  personal  impression  is,  from  reading  over  the  notes 
on  the  one  thousand  schedules  taken,  that  a  large  percentage  of  the 
families  are  in  economic  distress. 

VIII.  THE  HOME  AND  DOMESTIC  LIFE 

Over  70  per  cent  of  the  houses  of  this  district  are  single  or 
duplex  dwellings.  Outside  of  Broad  and  State  streets  there  are 
relatively  few  apartment  houses.  The  buildings,  in  general,  are 


TABLE  XII 

Artificial  Lighting  of  Dwellings 


Means  of  Artificial  Lighting 

No.  of  Households 
Reporting 

Percentage 

Gas . 

794 

79-4 

Electricity . 

92 

9.2 

Oil  lamps . 

99 

9.9 

Unknown . 

15 

1-5 

Total . 

1,000 

100 

TABLE  XIII 
Household  Conveniences 


Conveniences 

No.  of  Homes 

Percentage 

Bath . 

407 

40.7 

Ice  box . 

716 

71.6 

Toilet  in  house . 

435 

43-5 

placed  close  up  to  the  streets  leaving  no  room  in  front  for  lawns 
or  grass.  The  blocks  are  laid  out  in  such  a  way  that  there  are  few 
lanes  or  alleys,  and  most  of  the  buildings  on  Broad  Street  have 
their  entrances  facing  the  side  streets.  The  several  alleys  of  the 
neighborhood,  Capital,  Chapel,  etc.,  are  dignified  by  the  appellation 
“ streets”  and  are  used  as  such,  having  dwellings  on  both  sides, 
although  not  more  than  thirty  feet  wide. 

As  one  might  expect,  considering  the  low  rentals  charged,  the 
houses  of  this  district  are,  for  the  most  part,  obsolete.  Tables  XII 
and  XIII  give  the  results  of  our  house-to-house  canvass  in  this 
regard. 


502 


TEE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


In  regard  to  lighting  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  there  are 
more  households  using  coal-oil  lamps  than  there  are  using  elec¬ 
tricity.  Gas,  however,  is  the  predominant  method  of  lighting; 
almost  80  per  cent  of  the  dwellings  use  no  other  means  of  artificial 
illumination.  Further,  it  will  be  observed  that  over  50  per  cent 
of  the  homes  are  without  baths  or  inside  toilets.  The  absence  of 
the  ice  box1  in  29  per  cent  of  the  homes  is  also  a  point  of  significance 
for  the  public  health  authorities. 

Table  XIV  shows  the  number  of  rooms  per  dwelling  in  relation 
to  the  number  of  occupants. 

TABLE  XIV 

Rooms  per  Dwelling  in  Relation  to  Size  of  Household 


No.  of  Persons 

No.  Using  Specified  Number  of  Rooms 

Total 

in  Household 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

Unknown 

I . 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

I 

1 

I 

1 

c 

21 

2 . 

O 

2 

27 

II 

S3 

42 

39 

34 

16 

63 

70 

42 

46 

31 

24 

c 

38 

44 

52 

47 

27 

30 

11 

7 

7 

2 

1 

IO 

212 

2 . 

O 

I 

18 

IO 

0 

1 

6 

203 

171 

158 

95 

89 

28 

4 . 

7 

10 

13 

8 

c 

1 

1 

1 

C . 

O 

0 

0 

2 

2 

1 

6 . 

2 

4 

6 

2 

2 

7 . 

0 

I 

16 

8 

7 

0 

2 

O 

8 . 

2 

2 

2 

2 

O 

I 

1 

Q . 

2 

5 

2 

O 

1 

1 1 

IO . 

1 

O 

2 

1 

1 

c 

II . 

1 

1 

2 

12 . 

1 

2 

1 

c 

0 

J 

Total. . 

2 

9 

62 

209 

290 

259 

60 

55 

17 

11 

3 

23 

1,000 

Unlike  most  industrial  regions  in  large  cities  this  neighborhood 
shows,  at  the  date  of  survey,  very  little  overcrowding  in  housing 
conditions.  Of  the  households  concerning  which  we  have  complete 
information,  the  average  number  of  persons  per  room  is  1.3.  A 
significant  fact  brought  out  in  the  table  is  the  large  number  of 
households  of  three  or  less  members  occupying  dwellings  of  five 
rooms  or  more.  There  are  268  of  these.  But  on  the  other  hand  52 
families,  comprising  397  persons,  are  living  in  dwellings  having  less 
than  two  rooms  for  every  three  persons,  which,  according  to  housing 
standards,  implies  overcrowded  conditions.  And,  as  might  be 

1  It  is  an  interesting  observation  that  the  question  in  the  schedule  concerning  the 
presence  or  absence  of  the  ice  box  was  the  only  one  which  consistently  gave  offense. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  503 


surmised,  these  dwellings  are,  for  the  most  part,  located  along  the 
alleys  in  the  eastern  section  of  the  neighborhood. 

Of  the  one  thousand  families  visited  295  reported  owning  their 
own  homes.  In  other  words  about  29  per  cent  of  the  homes  of  the 
entire  district  are  occupied  by  their  present  owners.  Unfortu¬ 
nately  we  do  not  possess  the  facts  in  regard  to  home-ownership 
for  the  city  as  a  whole,  consequently  we  cannot  compare  this 
neighborhood  with  other  sections  of  the  city.  The  percentage  of 
home-ownership  found  here,  however,  is  considerably  higher  than 
that  of  many  of  the  big  cities  of  the  country  where  the  apartment 
house  abounds.  For  instance  in  Baltimore  the  ratio  of  home- 
ownership  is  27.9  per  cent,  in  Chicago  25.1  per  cent,  in  Boston, 
18.9,  in  New  York  12.1,  and  in  the  crowded  boroughs  of  Manhattan 
and  the  Bronx  only  5.9  per  cent.1 

Although  kinship  does  not  any  longer  play  the  role  that  it 
once  did  in  the  organization  of  local  life,  nevertheless,  it  is  still  a 
factor  in  neighborhood  selection  within  the  city.  Of  the  1,000 
households  studied,  646  reported  having  one  or  more  related 
families  residing  within  the  city  of  Columbus,  and  476  households 
claimed  kinship  to  one  or  more  families  living  within  the  confines 
of  the  immediate  neighborhood.  These  facts  indicate  that  the 
bond  of  kinship  continues  to  influence  the  territorial  groupings  of 
people  within  the  city.  This  is  especially  true  with  respect  to  the 
lower  economic  areas.  Mutual  aid  has  almost  ceased  to  be  a 
factor  in  the  fragmentary  and  casual  relations  between  neighbors 
in  the  city  environment.  What  direct  co-operation  remains,  out¬ 
side  of  the  purposive  organizations  such  as  the  trade  unions  and 
fraternal  societies,  is  confined  to  the  members  of  the  family  or 
kinship  group.2  This  fact  may  partially  explain  the  relatively  high 

1  Munro,  Government  of  American  Cities,  p.  48. 

2 1  am  aware  that  this  statement  does  not  correspond  with  the  usual  findings  of 
social  workers  concerning  the  extent  of  mutual  aid  among  tenement  families.  For 
instance  Dr.  Devine  is  quoted  as  saying  “It  is  a  question  whether  the  unmeasured  but 
certainly  large  amount  of  neighborly  assistance  given  in  the  tenement  houses  of  the 
city,  precisely  as  in  a  New  England  village  or  in  a  frontier  settlement,  does  not  rank 
first  of  all  among  the  means  for  the  alleviation  of  the  distressed.” — Rev.  John  A.  Ryan, 
Commencement  Address  to  a  graduating  class  in  New  York  School  of  Social  Work, 
1920.  For  similar  findings  compare  Elsa  G.  Herzfeld,  op.  cit.,  pp.  33-34. 


5°4 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


percentage  of  kinship  found  in  this  comparatively  low  economic 
region  of  the  city.  A  very  small  percentage  of  the  heads  of  house¬ 
holds  belong  to  the  trade  unions  or  voluntary  societies  of  any  sort, 
consequently  there  is  greater  need  for  reliance  upon  relatives  in 
times  of  need. 

The  family  group  is  now  taken  by  welfare  organizations  as  the 
unit  for  case-work.  It  is  therefore  important  to  know  the  salient 
facts  about  the  family  life  of  any  region  where  social  reconstruction 
is  contemplated. 


TABLE  XV 

Age  Distribution  of  Male  Heads  of  Households 


Age  in  Years 

Percentage  of  Heads  of  Households 
in  Each  Age  Group 

Neighborhood 

Columbus 

Under  25  years . 

3-9 

6.2 

25-44 . 

50.8 

57-2 

45  and  over . 

45-3 

36.6 

As  was  indicated  by  Table  III  (p.  489  of  this  article),  and  is 
further  brought  out  here,  the  age  distribution  of  the  population 
within  the  neighborhood  differs  considerably  from  that  of  the  city  as 
a  whole.  The  neighborhood  has  a  distinctly  lower  percentage  of 
people  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  a  considerably  higher  ratio  of  chil¬ 
dren  and  people  over  forty-five  years  of  age.  This  condition  is  par¬ 
tially  explained  by  the  fact  that  a  number  of  young  men  were  still  in 
military  service  when  the  survey  was  made.  It  may  also  be  true, 
however,  that  during  the  more  productive  years  of  life  many  people 
are  able  to  afford  residence  in  the  more  desirable  sections  of  the  city, 
but,  as  their  productive  capacity  declines  with  age,  they  are  forced 
to  retire  to  the  lower  rental  areas. 

Children  per  family. — Table  XVI  indicates  the  number  of 
children  per  family  under  eighteen  years  of  age  residing  at  home 
at  the  time  the  survey  was  made. 


Among  our  families,  however,  there  was  little  evidence  to  show  that  mutual  aid 
extended  beyond  the  kinship  group.  There  were  of  course  occasional  spots  in  the 
district  where  neighbors  exchanged  services  but  such  cases  seemed  to  be  exceptional. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE 


505 


This  table  shows  that  about  25  per  cent  of  the  families  reporting 
are  without  children  living  at  home;  that  the  average  number  of 
children  per  family  is  only  1.9,  which  of  course  is  very  low.  The 
average  is  brought  down,  however,  by  the  high  percentage  of 
households  having  no  children  at  all.  On  the  other  hand  there 
are  106  households  where  there  are  five  or  more  children  living  at 
home.  These  large  families  are  found,  as  a  rule,  in  the  broken- 
down  streets  and  alleys  of  the  neighborhood. 

TABLE  XVI 


Children  per  Household,  18  Years  and  Under 


Children  per  Household 

Households  Reporting  Each  Specified 
Number  of  Children 

No. 

Percentage 

None . 

249 

24.9 

1 . 

219 

21.9 

2 . 

192 

19.2 

3 . 

138 

13.8 

4 . 

96 

9.6 

5 . 

76 

7.6 

13 

i-3 

7 . 

8 

.8 

8 . 

4 

•  4 

9 . 

2 

.  2 

3 

•3 

Total . 

1,000 

100 

The  broken  family. — By  the  “ broken  family”  we  mean  family 
groups  where  either  or  both  parents,  for  some  reason  or  other,  are 
absent  from  home.  Unfortunately,  owing  to  the  delicate  nature 
of  family  problems,  it  was  impossible  to  ascertain  whether  the 
parent’s  absence  was  due  to  death,  divorce,  desertion,  or  some 
other  cause.  Temporary  absence,  however,  is  not  recorded  in 
Table  XVII. 

It  will  be  observed  from  this  table  that  15.6  per  cent  of  the 
households  may,  according  to  our  definition,  be  classified  as  broken 
families.  Twenty-six  households  are  listed  as  non-family  groups; 
these  comprise  groups  of  non-relatives  or  at  least  distant  relatives, 
living  together  in  household  association. 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


The  unwholesome  family. — As  we  have  already  indicated,1  every 
normal  individual  possesses  four  general  types  of  desires,  namely, 
the  desire  for  safety  or  security,  the  desire  for  recognition  or  social 
status,  the  desire  for  new  experiences  or  stimulations,  and  the  desire 
for  mastery  or  power.  If  any  one  of  these  general  desires  is  not 
getting  adequate  expression  in  the  social  environment  the  individual 
or  group  concerned  tends  to  show  signs  of  restlessness  and  discon¬ 
tentment,  which  may  finally  end  in  disorderliness  or  some  other 
form  of  emotional  disturbance.  Whenever  we  find  such  dissatis¬ 
faction  and  maldirection  of  attention  on  the  part  of  members  of  a 


TABLE  XVII 

Parental  Status  of  Heads  of  Households 


Parental  Status 

No.  of  Households 
Reporting 

Percentage 

Both  parents . 

818 

81.8 

One  parent — father . 

20 

2.0 

One  parent — mother . 

120 

12.0 

Neither  parent  present . 

l6 

I  .6 

Non-family  groups . 

26 

2.6 

Total . 

1,000 

IOO 

family  group,  we  call  that  group  an  “ unwholesome  family.”  Such 
families  may  not  come  under  the  supervision  of  any  organized 
social  agency;  nor  is  it  necessary  that  they  be  in  adverse  economic 
conditions  to  show  signs  of  degeneracy  and  social  unwholesome¬ 
ness.  Slums  have  been  characterized  as  “  areas  of  lost  souls  and 
missions,”2  areas  where  individuals  and  family  groups  are  living 
in  enforced  intimacy  with  people  whom  they  naturally  shun  and 
avoid;  areas  where  there  are  no  standards  of  decency  or  social 
conduct  except  those  imposed  by  outside  authority.  In  such  an 
environment  the  individual  has  no  status,  there  is  no  representative 
citizen,  the  human  desires  for  recognition  and  security  remain 
unsatisfied.3 

1  See  Amer.  Jour,  of  Sociol.,  XXVII  (September,  1921),  160. 

3  From  a  mimeographed  circular  issued  by  Division  of  Immigrant  Heritages, 
Americanization  Bureau,  New  York,  January,  1919. 

3  Joseph  Lee,  referring  to  the  disorganizing  influence  of  the  slum  environment, 
writes  ( Play  in  Education  [1919],  p.  382):  “The  danger,  often  realized,  is  that  the 
city  dweller  may  have  no  neighbors,  or  at  least  no  neighborhood — no  group  of  any 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  507 


There  are  many  instances  of  unwholesome  families  to  be  found 
within  this  neighborhood;  let  us  give  a  few  typical  examples. 

Case  A:  This  is  a  family  composed  of  husband,  wife,  and  four 
small  children.  They  live  in  a  four-roomed  dwelling  for  which  they 
pay  $10  per  month.  The  home  contains  none  of  the  modern 
conveniences  such  as  bath,  ice  box,  or  toilet  facilities.  It  is  also 
bereft  of  musical  instruments  of  any  sort,  books,  or  magazines. 
The  family  does  not  even  take  a  daily  paper.  The  husband  is  a 
day  laborer  and  during  the  early  part  of  the  year  was  off  work  on 
account  of  illness  for  four  weeks.  According  to  its  own  report  the 
family  occasionally  attends  the  street  mission  but  none  of  its 
members  belong  to  any  outside  social  group.  In  the  informant’s 
language,  “We  never  visit  no  one.”  The  visitor  makes  the  note, 
“The  little  girl,  E,  has  never  gone  to  school  although  she  is  nine 
years  of  age  and  apparently  bright.” 

Case  B :  This  family  is  composed  at  present  of  just  father  and 
mother,  the  children  are  all  grown  up  and  away.  The  couple  live 
in  about  the  same  conditions  as  family  A.  The  home  is  devoid  of 
conveniences  and  cultural  marks  of  any  description.  The  husband 
drinks.  He  visits  saloons  and  his  wife  does  fancy  work  all  day. 
They  are  not  on  friendly  terms  with  their  neighbors  who  say,  “They 
swear  and  drink  too  much.”  The  old  lady  says,  however,  “They 
are  jealous  of  us,  they  throw  bricks  at  our  windows;  it’s  a  rough 
district.”  Investigator’s  note:  “The  wife  wears  a  huge  sunbonnet, 
has  a  frightened,  piping  voice,  crochets,  tats,  and  does  fancy  work 
continuously;  she  has  four  yelping  dogs  and  three  cats  penned  up 
in  the  kitchen,  evidently  to  protect  her;  she  is  a  regular  story-book 
type  of  woman.” 

Case  C:  In  this  family  there  are  husband,  wife,  and  four  chil¬ 
dren,  the  eldest  of  whom  is  but  eleven  years  of  age.  The  family  lives 
in  a  five-roomed  frame  dwelling  which  is  obsolete  in  every  respect. 
They  have  been  in  the  neighborhood  five  years  and  in  the  city  six. 
The  wife  and  children  occasionally  attend  the  Church  of  Christ  but, 
outside  of  this,  they  have  no  form  of  social  life.  The  wife  dislikes 


sort  in  which  he  feels  a  membership — no  immediate  social  atmosphere,  no  standard 
which  holds  him  up  and  which  he  feels  it  his  business  to  uphold.  He  easily  becomes 
the  man  without  a  neighbor  almost  as  maimed  as  the  man  without  a  country  or  the 
man  without  a  home.” 


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THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


the  neighborhood  because,  “ There  are  too  many  niggers  and  dogs.” 
With  regard  to  her  neighbors  she  remarks,  “We  leave  each  other 
alone.”  Investigator’s  note:  “The  woman  told  me  that  she  lacked 
but  one  month  of  graduating  from  a  southern  Presbyterian  college 
when  she  married.  She  seems  satisfied  with  the  slum  life  but  told 
me  how  awfully  poor  they  are;  they  can’t  even  afford  an  evening 
paper.” 

Case  D:  This  family  has  seven  members,  father,  mother,  and 
five  children  the  eldest  of  whom  is  about  eighteen.  The  family 
has  been  in  the  neighborhood  just  six  months,  having  moved  there 
from  a  country  district.  So  far,  it  has  not  found  itself  in  its  new 
environment.  The  only  recreational  or  social  life  reported  by  the 
family  is  an  occasional  attendance  at  the  motion-picture  show. 
The  family  has  lost  social  status  since  coming  to  the  city  and  is  in 
a  position  to  become  disorganized.  The  mother  said  to  the  investi¬ 
gator,  “We  used  to  keep  up  in  society,  but  just  can’t  any  more, 
my  son  could  dance  like  they  danced  in  the  country  but  of  course 
town  dancing  is  more  like  society.”  They  do  not  like  the  neighbors 
round  about  them  because  “they  fight  and  beat  each  other.” 

These  are  but  a  few  cases  selected  at  random  from  a  large 
number  of  a  similar  sort.  They  represent  what  we  call  “unwhole¬ 
some  families,”  that  is  to  say,  some  of  the  dominant  attitudes  and 
values  which  are  necessary  to  make  life  wholesome  and  thriving 
are  missing.  It  should  be  part  of  the  duty  of  the  neighborhood 
social  worker  to  get  acquainted  with  all  such  families  under  his 
jurisdiction  and  help  them  to  help  themselves  by  discovering  their 
wants  and  needs  and  then  linking  them  up  with  the  organization 
or  social  group  with  which  the  respective  members  most  closely 
identify  their  personalities,  thereby  arousing  a  new  interest  and 
motive  for  living. 

The  marooned  family . — It  is  quite  as  important  for  the  social 
worker  in  a  broken-down  neighborhood  to  know  his  sources  of  aid 
as  to  be  familiar  with  the  pathological  conditions  with  which  he 
has  to  deal.  For  this  reason  we  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  fact 
that  there  are  many  families  in  all  parts  of  this  neighborhood  who 
are  as  competent  and  as  intelligent  citizens  as  are  to  be  found  in 
any  other  section  of  the  city.  Many  of  these  families  are  long- 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  509 

time  residents  of  this  neighborhood,  who  on  account  of  home- 
ownership  or  other  local  attachments  have  been  compelled  to 
remain  here  long  after  the  surrounding  area  has  become  disinte¬ 
grated  and  broken  down.  Such  families  usually  have  a  desire  to 
help  rehabilitate  their  surroundings,  but,  realizing  their  individual 
helplessness,  despair  of  any  accomplishment.  A  few  become 
rancorous  and  soured  toward  the  region  of  their  habitation  and 
hold  themselves  aloof  from  any  form  of  contact  with  the  people 
round  about.  Their  interests  and  associations  are  in  other  sections 
of  the  community,  consequently  they  feel  no  dependence  whatever 
upon  their  neighborhood  institutions  and  have  no  interest  in  their 
welfare.  The  two  following  cases  are  typical  examples  of  “  ma¬ 
rooned  families.” 

Case  A:  This  family  consists  of  father,  mother,  and  three 
grownup  children.  They  own  their  home  and  have  been  living 
in  the  neighborhood  for  the  past  fifteen  years.  The  father  is 
an  engineer,  the  daughter  a  stenographer,  and  one  of  the  sons 
is  a  student  at  the  university.  The  family  is  living  in  a  section 
of  the  neighborhood  that  has  fallen  to  pieces  during  the  last  few 
years.  The  mother  informed  the  investigator:  “This  is  a  horrible 
place  to  live  in  but  we  can’t  leave  on  account  of  our  property.” 
Investigator’s  note:  “This  is  a  high  type  of  family,  not  to  be 
compared  with  the  people  round  about.” 

Case  B:  This  family  is  living  in  the  eastern  section  of  the 
neighborhood.  They  have  been  in  their  present  home  for  thirty- 
nine  years.  The  family  is  composed  of  a  widowed  mother,  sixty 
years  of  age,  and  three  grownup  children,  two  sons  and  a  daughter. 
The  older  boy  is  an  automobile  salesman,  the  younger  one  had  not 
returned  from  the  army  on  the  date  of  visit.  All  members  of  the 
family  belong  to  the  Catholic  church  which  they  report  attending 
regularly.  They  have  a  phone,  piano,  and  over  one  hundred  books 
in  their  library.  The  family  is  anxious  to  sell  their  home  and  get 
out  of  the  neighborhood.  They  consider  the  people  living  round 
about  as  “nothing  but  trash.”  Investigator’s  note:  “This  is  a 
nice  old  lady;  she  considers  the  neighborhood  run  down  and 
refuses  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  families  around  her  except 
the  K’s.” 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  IN 
THE  CITY  OF  COLUMBUS,  OHIO 


R.  D.  McKENZIE 
University  of  Washington 


ABSTRACT 

Religion  and  the  church.  Differences  in  religious  and  moral  attitudes  are  potent 
elements  in  the  determination  of  lines  of  association  in  this  neighborhood.  The 
Catholic  church  is  a  dominant  force,  but  most  of  the  Protestant  churches  are  losing 
ground.  Missions,  representing  the  more  mystical  creeds,  enlist  the  interest  of  a 
considerable  element  of  the  population.  Education  and  delinquency.  Part  of  this 
neighborhood  has  the  lowest  school-attendance  rating  of  any  section  in  the  city.  The 
children  attending  one  of  the  schools  in  this  section  were  rated  by  a  psychologist  as 
mentally  two  years  below  the  children  attending  a  school  in  a  higher  economic  area  of 
the  city.  Juvenile  delinquency  is  slightly  more  prevalent  in  this  neighborhood  than 
in  the  city  as  a  whole.  N eighborhood  sentiment.  Positive  sentiment  for  the  neighbor¬ 
hood  and  surrounding  neighbors  is  rarely  expressed  by  resident  family  groups.  Occa¬ 
sional  streets,  however,  contain  intimate  neighborly  groups  of  people  who  are  happy 
in  their  physical  and  social  surroundings. 


IX.  RELIGION  AND  THE  CHURCH 

Our  chief  interest  in  wishing  to  know  the  religious  affiliations  of 
the  people  of  this  neighborhood  is  to  get  some  clue  concerning  the 
diversity  of  their  voluntary  associations.  A  study  of  any  resi¬ 
dential  area  within  a  city  always  reveals  the  great  complexity  of 
the  associational  life  of  its  inhabitants.  The  crossings  and  recross¬ 
ings  of  individual  interests  show  that  neighborhood  association 
alone  is  not  adequate  to  meet  all  the  needs  of  human  nature. 
Table  XVIII  gives  in  considerable  detail  the  religious  preference 
of  the  adults  of  this  neighborhood  as  obtained  from  our  house- 
to-house  canvass.  It  includes  all  persons  indicating  religious  pref¬ 
erence,  not  merely  church  members  or  attendants. 

It  will  be  observed  that  there  is  a  considerable  range  of  difference 
in  the  religious  preference  of  the  people  in  this  district.  Approxi¬ 
mately  32  per  cent  of  all  adults  reporting,  38  per  cent  of  the  men 
and  26  per  cent  of  the  women,  deny  affiliation  with  any  religious 

588 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  589 


group.  Of  those  indicating  religious  preference,  520,  or  22.8  per 
cent,  incline  toward  the  Catholic  faith,  and,  for  the  most  part,  are 
members  of  the  Holy  Family  Church  within  the  neighborhood. 
The  remaining  1,317,  or  87  per  cent,  indicate  preference  for  one 
or  other  of  the  various  Protestant  sects  listed  in  Table  XVIII. 
It  will  be  noted  that  a  very  considerable  portion  of  those  of  Protes¬ 
tant  faith  belong  to  the  more  mystical  and  orthodox  types  of 
religious  sects. 

TABLE  XVIII 
Religious  Affiliation 


Male 

Female 

Total 

No.  reporting  no  church  affiliation . 

488 

363 

851 

No.  reporting  affiliation  with  Catholic  churches . 

237 

283 

520 

No.  reporting  affiliation  with  Protestant  churches . . . 

575 

742 

U3I7 

Sectarian  distribution  of  Protestants: 

Methodist . 

195 

247 

442 

Baptist . 

73 

90 

163 

Presbyterian . 

68 

82 

150 

Lutheran . 

47 

60 

107 

Church  of  Christ . 

36 

65 

IOI 

Episcopal . 

37 

49 

86 

United  Brethren . 

34 

38 

72 

Spiritualist . 

15 

25 

40 

Congregational . 

10 

10 

20 

Protestant  Church . 

8 

3 

11 

Seventh-Day  Adventists . . . 

4 

7 

11 

Holy  Rollers . 

4 

7 

11 

Christian  Science . 

1 

8 

9 

Salvation  Army . 

2 

6 

8 

Missions . 

4i 

45 

86 

Total  number  of  persons  reporting . 

1,300 

1,388 

2,688 

The  facts  brought  out  in  our  religious  census,  together  with  the 
general  attitudes  expressed  on  religious  questions,  go  to  show  that 
the  people  of  this  neighborhood  constitute  a  peculiar  mixture  of 
intense  religious  enthusiasm  combined  with  religious  apathy  or 
pronounced  religious  antagonism.  In  other  words  the  apparent 
homogeneity  of  the  population  of  this  area,  as  revealed  by  the 
external  physical  and  cultural  conditions,  is,  for  the  most  part, 
superficial.  A  study  of  the  inner  associational  life  of  the  people 
shows  that  there  exist  wide  chasms  of  difference  in  social  attitudes. 


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TEE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


That  religious  bias  is  an  important  factor  in  determining  lines 
of  association  and  group  life  is  indicated  by  the  following  expres¬ 
sions  of  typical  attitudes:  “We  have  our  own  Spiritualist  friends 
and  don’t  bother  any  one  else.”  “I  don’t  like  this  district,  too 


many  niggers  and  Holy  Rollers.”  When  asked  concerning  attend¬ 
ance  at  motion-picture  shows,  one  woman  replied,  “Pictures  are 
sending  thousands  straight  to  hell,  dances  are  worse,  I’m  plain 
spoken.”  Another  woman  remarked,  “I  want  to  leave  this  neigh¬ 
borhood,  I  have  Catholics  on  both  sides  of  me.”  Such  examples 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  591 


might  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  attention  is  drawn  to  them  merely 
to  illustrate  the  difficulties  involved  when  attempting  to  bring 


individuals  of  different  religious  and  moral  attitudes  into  a  common 
plane  of  association.1 

City  churches  may  be  roughly  grouped  into  two  general  classes: 
neighborhood  churches  and  non-neighborhood  churches.  The 

1  “It  is  assumed,  I  suppose,  that  any  idea  or  group  of  ideas,  any  belief  or  group  of 
beliefs,  may  happen  to  be,  or  may  become,  a  common  interest,  shared  by  a  small  or  a 
large  number  of  individuals.  It  may  draw  and  hold  them  together  in  bonds  of 


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THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


former  type  selects  its  members  largely  on  the  basis  of  proximity, 
the  latter  type  selects  its  members  chiefly  on  the  basis  of  individual 
preference  or  interest  without  respect  to  locality. 

The  distribution  of  a  church’s  members  determines  the  role 
which  it  may  play  as  a  neighborhood  builder.  It  is  difficult  to 
focus  attention  on  neighborhood  affairs  among  a  congregation 
that  is  widely  distributed  throughout  the  entire  city.  Maps  VIII 
and  IX  illustrate  the  two  types  of  churches  referred  to. 


Map  X 


Within  the  district  surveyed  there  are  seven  churches  and  five 
missions,  the  locations  of  which  are  marked  on  Map  X.  A  sum¬ 
mary  of  the  leading  facts  concerning  these  religious  institutions 
will  give  some  indication  of  the  role  they  play  in  the  life  of  the 
neighborhood.  In  the  first  place  it  must  be  noted  that  the  churches 
vary  considerably  in  the  extent  to  which  they  draw  their  member- 


acquaintance,  of  association,  even  of  co-operation.  It  thus  may  play  a  group-making 
role.  Contradictory  ideas  or  beliefs,  therefore,  may  play  a  group-making  role  in  a 
double  sense.  Each  draws  into  association  the  individual  minds  that  entertain  it  or 
find  it  attractive.  Each  also  repels  those  minds  to  whom  it  is  repugnant,  and  drives 
them  toward  the  group  which  is  being  formed  about  the  contradictory  idea  or  belief. 
Contradictions  among  ideas  and  beliefs,  then,  it  may  be  assumed,  tend  on  the  whole 
to  sharpen  the  lines  of  demarkation  between  group  and  group.” — Giddings:  “Are 
Contradictions  of  Ideas  and  Beliefs  Likely  to  Play  an  Important  Group-making  Role 
in  the  Future  ?”  Amer.  Jour,  of  Sociol.,  2XIII,  784. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  593 


ship  from  the  neighborhood  round  about.  For  instance  four  of  the 
churches  report  that  over  90  per  cent  of  their  members  live  within 
walking  distance  of  their  respective  places  of  worship;  the  fifth 
church  reports  that  50  per  cent  of  its  members  live  within  walking 
distance,  the  sixth  35,  and  the  seventh  only  10  per  cent.  This 
information  will  help  in  the  interpretation  of  the  following  facts. 


TABLE  XIX 

Summary  of  Leading  Facts  with  Respect  to  the  Churches 


Protestant 

Churches 

Catholic 

Church 

Total  seating  capacity  of  church  auditoriums . 

2,250 

800 

Total  membership  (Communicants) . 

1,730 

1,400 

Total  membership  under  21  years  of  age,  four  Protestant 

churches  reporting . 

283 

700 

Total  average  morning  attendance,  four  Protestant 

churches  reporting . 

390 

L2SO 

Total  average  evening  attendance,  five  Protestant 

churches  reporting . 

623 

In  the  area  covered  by  our  survey  there  is  a  population  of 
approximately  11,000.  Considering  the  fact  that  these  religious 
institutions  serve  a  much  wider  region  than  that  covered  by  the 
survey,  it  is  evident  that  they  do  not  play  a  very  important  role 
in  the  life  of  the  neighborhood.  Of  the  four  Protestant  churches 
supplying  information,  23.7  per  cent  of  their  members  are  less 
than  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  50  per  cent  of  the  members  of 
the  Catholic  church  fall  below  this  age  limit.  Five  of  the  six  . 
ministers  of  the  Protestant  churches  reported  having  difficulty  in 
maintaining  the  interest  of  the  young  people  of  their  congregations, 
while  Father  Clarke  of  the  Holy  Family  Church  stated  that  he  had 
no  problem  in  this  regard.  Furthermore,  the  four  Protestant 
churches  giving  information  reported  an  average  attendance  of 
only  33.7  per  cent  of  their  members  at  the  morning  service  and 
44.6  per  cent  at  the  evening  service. 

In  addition  to  the  churches  just  described,  there  are  five  mis¬ 
sions  in  the  neighborhood.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  these,  like 
the  saloons,  are  located  in  the  eastern  and  northern  sections  of  the 
district,  that  is,  in  the  most  disintegrated  parts  of  the  neighborhood. 
These  missions  were  all  visited  by  our  investigator  and  information 
was  obtained  concerning  the  type  of  attendants,  nature  of  teach- 


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THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


ings,  and  extent  of  their  activities.  They  are  all  open  on  week 
nights,  and  report  a  total  average  nightly  attendance  of  115,  and  a 
total  average  Sunday  attendance  of  320  people.  In  their  preaching 
they  emphasize  Holiness,  Gift  of  Tongues,  Sanctification,  etc.  An 
interesting  fact  about  these  organizations  is  that  most  of  them  are 
products  of  the  distant  past,  some  of  them  dating  back  half  a 
century  or  more.  They  are  real,  live,  social  organisms  which  owe 
their  existence  to  the  fact  that  they  satisfy  real  needs  in  the  lives 
of  a  people  whose  normal  human  desires  have  been  stifled  or  mis¬ 
directed  by  an  adverse  social  environment.  The  mission  affords 
an  opportunity  for  self-expression  and  status  in  another  world  to 
those  who,  in  the  competitive  social  process,  have  lost  social  security 
and  recognition,  which  indeed  is  the  explanation  of  the  ‘Tost  soul.” 

Of  the  six  Protestant  churches  in  the  district,  five  gave  infor¬ 
mation  concerning  their  Sunday-school  activities.  These  reported 
a  total  average  weekly  attendance  in  adult  classes  of  114,  in  inter¬ 
mediate  classes,  241,  and  in  classes  for  children,  130.  These  figures 
become  significant  when  we  interpret  them  in  the  light  of  the  wider 
group  statistics.  In  the  territory  which  they  serve  there  are 
approximately  3,000  children  under  eighteen  years  of  age,  which 
implies  that  only  one  out  of  every  nine  children  is  enrolled  in  a 
Protestant  Sunday  school.  These  figures  are  somewhat  tem¬ 
porized,  however,  by  the  fact  that  the  one  Catholic  church  in  the 
district  has  an  average  attendance  of  360  children  in  its  Sunday 
morning  classes. 

The  six  Protestant  churches  report  the  following  societies  in 
connection  with  their  church  work:  eight  societies  for  women  with 
a  total  membership  of  approximately  250,  four  of  which  are  devoted 
to  missionary  enterprises;  four  organizations  for  men  with  a  total 
membership  of  97;  four  young  people’s  societies  with  an  approxi¬ 
mate  membership  of  235;  four  societies  for  girls  with  a  total 
membership  of  1 10;  and  one  boy  scout  organization  with  a  member¬ 
ship  of  thirty.  Most  of  these  societies  have  meetings  once  or 
twice  a  month  with  occasional  social  functions  of  a  more  general 
character. 

In  the  six  churches  referred  to,  there  are  nine  parlors  with  a 
total  seating  capacity  for  approximately  three  hundred  people. 
Two  of  the  churches  have  pianos,  one  a  stereopticon,  one  a  gym- 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  595 


nasium,  two  libraries,  and  four  have  kitchens.  The  recreational 
activities  of  the  Catholic  church  are  carried  on  under  the  direction 
of  the  parochial  school  and  Father  Clarke  reports  that  a  fully 
equipped  gymnasium  is  now  being  constructed  in  the  school 
building. 

In  reply  to  the  question,  “What  additional  equipment  would 
the  pastor  like  ?”  we  received  the  following  statements :  (1)  “Basket¬ 
ball  equipment,  bowling  alley  in  basement,  a  pool  table,  and  a 
trained  social  worker.”  (2)  “A  community  house  and  playground 
in  connection.”  (3)  “A  stereopticon  and  some  good  games.”  (4) 
“The  best  thing  is  to  have  some  religious  service  every  night  in  the 
week.”  (5)  “A  bulletin  board,  a  movie  lantern,  above  all  we  lack 
leadership.”  (6)  One  pastor  considers  that  it  is  not  the  function 
of  the  church  to  engage  in  welfare  work. 

X.  LEISURE-TIME  ACTIVITIES 

This  district  is  by  no  means  a  unit  so  far  as  equipment  of  homes 
for  leisure-time  activities  is  concerned.  With  respect  to  the 
possession  of  musical  instruments,  books,  magazines,  and  indoor 
games,  a  considerable  number  of  the  homes  are  furnished  quite  as 
well  as  those  in  the  higher  economic  areas  of  the  city.  This  is 
particularly  true  with  reference  to  many  of  the  homes  west  of 
Sandusky  and  south  of  Broad  Street;  and  there  are  also  homes 
scattered  in  other  sections  of  the  neighborhood  where  facilities  for 
indoor  leisure-time  activities  are  by  no  means  lacking.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  large  percentage  of  the  homes  of  the  entire  neighbor¬ 
hood  are  pathetically  bereft  of  any  sort  of  equipment  whatever  for 
the  fruitful  expenditure  of  leisure  time.  For  instance,  many  of 
the  homes  have  little  or  no  reading  material  other  than  the  daily 
paper1  and  some  families  are  either  too  poor  or  too  ignorant  to 
afford  even  that. 

It  will  be  noted  that  over  50  per  cent  of  our  one  thousand 
families  have  in  their  homes  no  musical  instrument  whatever.  On 
the  other  hand,  20  per  cent  of  the  homes  contain  pianos.  This  is 
merely  further  evidence  of  the  heterogeneous  character  of  the 

1  It  is  noteworthy  that  76  per  cent  of  the  families  reported  taking  as  their 
daily  paper  the  Citizen ,  an  evening  paper  which  features  dramatic  news  and  human 
interest  stories.  This  paper’s  city  circulation  is  quite  large  but  not  equal  to  that  of 
its  less  dramatic  competitor  the  Columbus  Despatch. 


596 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


population  of  this  neighborhood.  Poverty  and  sufficiency,  vicious¬ 
ness  and  respectability,  are  to  be  found  side  by  side  in  this  area 
of  the  city. 

It  might  be  expected,  owing  to  the  relatively  small  part  organ¬ 
ized  club  life  plays  in  the  lives  of  the  people  of  this  district,  that 


TABLE  XX 

Possession  of  Musical  Instruments 


Name  of  Musical  Instrument 

Families  Reporting  Each  Specified 
Kind  of  Instrument 

No. 

Percentage 

No  instrument . 

506 

50.6 

Piano . 

218 

21 .8 

Organ . 

16 

1.6 

Phonograph . 

181 

18. 1 

Piano  and  phonograph . 

58 

5-8 

Organ  and  phonograph . 

4 

•  4 

Unknown . 

17 

i-7 

Total . 

1,000 

100 

social  visiting  would  be  the  normal  and  customary  way  of  spending 
leisure  time.  For  this  reason  an  attempt  was  made  to  ascertain  to 
what  extent  social  visiting  was  customary,  either  within,  or  without 
the  neighborhood.  For  obvious  reasons  it  was  difficult  to  get 
accurate  information  on  this  point;  consequently  the  following 
summary  of  facts  is  at  best  but  an  approximate  statement  of 
the  truth. 

TABLE  XXI 

Extent  of  Social  Visiting  Within  and  Without  the  Neighborhood1 


Number  of  families  reporting  no  visiting  at  all . 

Number  reporting  more  visiting  within  than  without 

neighborhood . 

Number  reporting  more  visiting  outside  neighborhood.  . 
Number  reporting  equal  amount  of  visiting  within  and 

without  neighborhood . 

Unknown . 

Total . 


No. 

Percentage 

235 

23-5 

506 

50.6 

222 

22.2 

22 

22  . 

15 

1-5 

1,000 

IOO 

1  In  our  survey  we  defined  social  visiting  as  calling  on  a  family  in  its  home  and 
not  merely  talking  over  the  back  fence.  Neighborhood  was  defined  as  the  area 
within  walking  distance  of  the  home. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  597 


The  astonishing  thing  about  this  table  is  the  large  number  of 
families — 23  per  cent — that  reported  no  visiting  at  all.  The  usual 
explanation  was:  “I  have  too  much  to  do,  have  no  time  for  visit¬ 
ing”  or  “I  attend  to  my  own  business  and  let  other  folk  attend 
to  theirs.” 

It  is  apparent  that  social  visiting  is,  to  a  large  extent,  becoming 
obsolete  even  among  the  poorer  classes  as  a  means  of  employing 
leisure  time.  This  is  doubtless  due  to  the  mobility  and  anonymity 
of  modern  city  life  where  personal  acquaintance  and  neighborhood 
association  have  largely  become  a  thing  of  the  past.1  In  contrast 
to  this  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  replies  of  the  old-timers  to  the 
question,  “What  were  the  principal  old-time  forms  of  recreation 
in  the  neighborhood ?”  The  following  answers  are  typical:  “Pic¬ 
nics,  neighborhood  dances,  barn  dances,  fishing  parties,  friendly 
visiting,  etc.” 

There  are  two  leading  amusement  areas  in  the  neighborhood 
where  large  numbers  of  the  people,  both  young  and  old,  gather 
every  evening.  These  areas  are  the  best  lighted  and  gayest  spots 
in  the  district.  They  can  be  easily  recognized  by  even  the  casual 
visitor  to  the  neighborhood  as  the  local  fountain  heads  of  amuse¬ 
ment.  Both  are  located  on  Broad  Street — one  between  May  and 
Mill  avenues,  the  other  farther  west  on  Broad  between  Hartford 
and  Jones  avenues.  In  the  first  area  there  are  two  saloons,  each 
having  a  poolroom  in  the  rear,  a  motion-picture  theater,  an  air 
dome,  a  restaurant,  a  barber  shop,  and  a  shoe-shining  parlor. 

The  three  motion-picture  theaters  of  the  neighborhood  are 
located  in  the  two  areas  just  referred  to.  One  of  these  is  really 

1  With  the  disintegration  of  the  neighborhood  a  large  element  of  any  city’s  popu¬ 
lation  is  suffering  from  the  lack  of  intimate  associates.  This  is  particularly  true  with 
reference  to  the  mothers  of  small  children.  The  disorganizing  effect  of  loneliness 
has  never  been  adequately  analyzed.  Graham  Wallas  says  ( The  Great  Society  [1914], 
p.  350),  “The  fact  ....  that  there  is  a  Mean  in  our  powers  of  forming  acquaintance, 
that  it  is  joy  to  know  enough  people  and  a  weariness  to  know  too  many,  affects  not 
only  the  group- organization  of  the  Great  Industry,  but  also  the  life  of  the  industrial 
worker  during  the  now  slowly  lengthening  interval  between  his  work  and  his  sleep. 
The  young  unmarried  artisan,  or  shopman,  or  clerk  generally  lives  either  in  a  one- 
roomed  lodging  with  a  defect  of  intimate  association  or  in  a  great  boarding-house  with 
an  excess  of  it.  Outside  his  factory  or  office,  he  may  either  know  no  one  to  speak  to 
or  have  a  hundred  nodding  acquaintances  and  no  friend.” 


598 


TEE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


not  a  theater  but  an  air  dome  and  is  closed  during  the  winter 
months.  Our  investigator  visited  all  three  of  these  and  had  inter¬ 
views  with  their  managers.  From  the  standpoint  of  sanitation 
and  fire  protection  they  were  all  reported  as  being  in  “fair”  condi¬ 
tion.  The  pictures  shown  were  reported  as  being  “thrilling, 
adventurous,  daring”;  nothing  immoral  or  disorganizing  was 
detected.  According  to  the  investigator’s  estimate  of  the  age 
distribution  of  the  audiences,  75  per  cent  in  one,  65  per  cent  in  the 
second,  and  85  per  cent  in  the  third  were  under  eighteen  years  of 
age.  The  audiences  were,  for  the  most  part,  made  up  of  people 


living  within  the  immediate  neighborhood,  over  90  per  cent  of 
whom  walked  to  the  shows.  The  three  theaters  have  a  total 
seating  capacity  of  870,  and  an  average  daily  attendance  of  about 
800.  In  two  of  the  theaters  shows  are  held  every  evening  with  an 
additional  matinee  on  Sunday.  The  third  theater  is  open  but  four 
evenings  of  the  week.  Pictures  are  changed  in  all  three  theaters 
for  each  performance.  A  charge  of  ten  cents  for  adults  and  of 
from  six  to  ten  cents  for  children  is  made. 

It  is  very  evident  that  the  motion-picture  show  is  the  most 
popular  form  of  amusement  for  the  people  of  this  neighborhood. 
The  results  of  our  house-to-house  canvass  show  that,  for  the  women 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  599 


and  children  at  least,  the  moving  picture  is  the  predominant  type 
of  recreation.  The  comparatively  high  percentage  of  small  children 
in  attendance  at  the  shows  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  youth 
of  the  neighborhood  are  drawn  to  the  more  attractive  and,  for  them, 
easily  accessible  forms  of  amusement  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  while 
the  older  men  attend  the  saloons  and  many  of  the  mothers  remain 
at  home. 

There  are  eight  poolrooms  in  the  neighborhood,  three  of  which 
are  connected  with  saloons.  They  all  happen  to  be  located  on 
Broad  Street.  The  poolroom  is  primarily  the  social  club  for  the 
young  men.  About  50  per  cent  of  the  patrons  present  on  the  dates 
of  inspection  were  under  twenty-one  years  of  age.  In  all  of  the 
poolrooms  the  conduct  was  reported  as  being  “  orderly  and  quiet.” 
The  young  men,  in  general,  seemed  to  be  well  acquainted  with  one 
another  and  used  the  poolroom  as  a  social  meeting  place. 

As  indicated  on  Map  XI  there  are  at  present  (August,  1919) 
seventeen  saloons  within  the  area  surveyed.  These  saloons  have 
all  been  inspected  twice;  once  in  May  before  the  demise  of  John 
Barleycorn,  and  again  in  August,  two  months  after  prohibition  had 
gone  into  effect.  An  interesting  fact  brought  out  in  the  second 
tour  of  investigation  was  that  all  the  saloons  were  found  to  be  still 
open  and  doing  an  active  business  in  “soft”  drinks,  confectionery, 
cigars,  lunches,  etc.  In  reply  to  the  question,  “Does  the  pro¬ 
prietor  intend  to  continue  in  business?”  four  of  the  seventeen 
stated  that  they  expected  to  turn  their  saloons  into  restaurants. 
One  proprietor  said  that  he  was  making  more  money  than  formerly; 
the  remainder  indicated  that  they  were  awaiting  the  results  of  the 
fall  elections  and  the  effects  of  the  advent  of  cold  weather  on  their 
soft  drink  business.  Sixteen  of  the  seventeen  saloons  were  fur¬ 
nished  with  card  tables;  approximately  75  per  cent  of  which  were 
in  active  use  on  the  evenings  of  investigation. 

There  are  three  distinct  types  of  saloons  in  this  neighborhood, 
characterized  by  the  form  of  service  rendered  and  the  class  of 
patron  served.  In  the  first  place  there  is  the  “social  club”  saloon 
which  serves  as  the  evening  clubhouse  for  the  older  men  of  the 
neighborhood.  Saloons  of  this  type  are  to  be  found,  for  the  most 
part,  west  of  Gift  Street;  they  are  all  well  equipped  with  card 


6oo 


TEE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


tables  and  owe  their  existence  largely  to  the  fact  that  they  are 
social  meeting  places  for  the  older  men  of  the  neighborhood  who 
are  too  tired  after  a  day’s  work  to  go  up  town  to  the  more  dramatic 
but  less  sociable  resorts  on  High  and  Front  streets.  Very  few  men 
under  thirty  years  of  age  were  found  in  these  social-club  saloons. 
Moreover  the  patrons  seemed  to  be  intimately  acquainted  with  one 
another  and  spent  their  time  in  talking  and  playing  “rummy”  for 
the  drinks.  This  type  of  saloon  plays  a  very  important  part  in 
the  life  of  this  particular  class  of  people  in  the  neighborhood.  In 
fact  the  club  life  afforded  by  the  saloon  seems  to  be  the  only  form 
of  group  association,  outside  the  narrow  circle  of  the  home,  in  which 
the  older  males  participate. 

The  second  type  of  saloon  is  that  which  caters  to  the  transient 
class  of  patrons.  Saloons  of  this  character  are  located  on  Broad 
Street,  especially  east  of  the  subway  where  the  chief  industrial 
establishments  of  the  neighborhood  are  situated.  Such  saloons  do 
not  encourage  club  life,  and  the  patrons  are,  as  a  rule,  strangers  to 
one  another  who  merely  stop  in  for  a  drink  and  then  depart. 

The  third  and  most  questionable  type  of  saloon  is  the  “  sporting- 
resort,”  used  as  a  meeting  place  for  young  people  who  are  attracted 
by  this  sort  of  life.  The  eastern  section  of  the  neighborhood 
contains  several  saloons  of  this  character.  The  two  saloons  on 
Starling  Street  and  the  two  on  Lucas  and  Rich  streets  are  the 
leading  representatives  of  this  class.  They  contain  rear  parlors 
of  a  somewhat  questionable  nature  and  are  frequented  by  young 
men,  “professional  bums,”  who  very  probably  do  not  live  in  the 
neighborhood  but  merely  resort  there  periodically.  Such  rendez¬ 
vous  are  a  menace  to  the  life  of  the  neighborhood  inasmuch  as  they 
attract  the  undesirable  elements  from  the  larger  community  and 
thus  tend  to  disorganize  the  local  area  by  driving  out  the  more 
respectable  families.1 

1  Nowhere  is  the  individualizing  force  of  the  city  environment  more  clearly  revealed 
than  in  the  individual  selection  of  leisure-time  activities.  Commercialized  forms  of 
recreation  are  organized  to  cater  to  the  special  interests  of  the  different  age,  sex,  and 
cultural  groups  of  the  population.  Thus  in  our  neighborhood  the  older  men  prefer 
the  informal  sociability  of  the  saloon  club  life;  the  young  men  are  attracted  by  the 
more  active  forms  of  amusement  offered  by  the  poolroom,  or  by  the  sex  attractions 
of  the  cabaret  or  cheap  dance  hall;  the  young  women  attend  the  up-town  dance  halls 
or  the  movies;  the  small  children  attend  the  movies,  while  the  mothers  have  little  or 
no  recreational  life  save  an  occasional  visit  to  the  motion-picture  theater  or  the  club 
life  afforded  by  the  church. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  601 


Leisure-time  activities  of  children. — Through  the  kind  co-operation 
of  the  principals  and  teachers  of  the  three  public  schools  in  the 
neighborhood,  a  census  was  taken  in  the  early  part  of  May,  1919, 
of  the  after-school  activities  of  all  the  children  in  Grades  III  to 
VIII  inclusive.  On  a  Monday  morning  the  children  were  instructed 
by  their  teachers  to  relate  in  writing  just  how  they  had  spent  their 
time  after  leaving  school  Friday  afternoon  until  they  went  to  bed 

TABLE  XXII 


Types  of  Activities  Reported  by  350  School  Boys  for  a  Two-Day  Period, 

May  23-24,  1919 


Time 

Playing 

Baseball 

Roaming, 

Fishing, 

Swimming 

Attending 

Picture 

Shows 

Undesignated 

Play 

Reading, 

Studying 

Working 

Going 

up 

Town 

Street 

Trades 

Other 
Work 
for  Pay 

Helping 

Parents 

Fri.  afternoon.  .  . . 

32.0 

8.6 

.8 

16.0 

6.9 

10.6 

12.3 

33-1 

5-i 

Fri.  evening . 

16.8 

7-4 

20.0 

13.° 

30.8 

1-4 

4-4 

15-4 

4.6 

Sat.  morning . 

16.0 

13.0 

30.8 

5-0 

7.0 

14.8 

33-7 

12.3 

Sat.  afternoon.  . . . 

25-4 

9.2 

3-8 

14.0 

4-3 

8-3 

13-4 

21 . 7 

14.0 

Sat.  evening . 

9-7 

8-3 

27.4 

12.3 

12.3 

3-o 

8.6 

16.0 

15.0 

TABLE  XXIII 

Types  of  Activities  Reported  by  375  School  Girls  for  a  Two-Day  Period 

May  23-24,  1919 


Time 

Undesig¬ 

nated 

Play 

Walking, 

Visiting, 

Picnics 

Attending 

Picture 

Shows 

Doing 

Nothing 

Reading, 

Studying, 

Music 

Working 
for  Pay 

Helping 

Parents 

Going  up 
Town 

Fri.  afternoon. . . 

29-3 

7-7 

1.9 

2 . 1 

24.3 

4.0 

56.0 

8-3 

Fri.  evening.  .  .  . 

29.I 

11  •  7 

14. 1 

4.0 

38.1 

.8 

32.3 

2.4 

Sat.  morning. .  . . 

12.3 

5-i 

7-5 

•3 

7-i 

2.4 

79-7 

10.7 

Sat.  afternoon. . . 

22 . 1 

17-3 

18.3 

1.6 

12.3 

3-2 

33-6 

27.7 

Sat.  evening.  . . . 

20.0 

13-9 

25.O 

2.9 

18. 1 

i-3 

22.7 

15-7 

Saturday  night.  In  Tables  XXII-XXIII  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  classify  the  recorded  activities  according  to  the  specified 
time  intervals. 

Owing  to  the  striking  dissimilarity  of  the  activities  reported  by 
the  boys  and  the  girls  it  was  found  necessary  to  make  separate 
classifications.  For  instance  social  visiting  and  picnicing  are 
popular  activities  with  the  girls  while  fishing  and  roaming  are  more 
attractive  to  the  boys.  In  both  tables  the  term  “undesignated 


602 


TEE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


play”  includes  all  sorts  of  general  statements  such  as  “ After  school 
I  went  home  and  played  till  supper  time”  or  “I  went  out  and 
played  with  the  kids.”  It  will  be  observed  that  a  very  considerable 
part  of  the  play  activities  of  both  sexes  is  of  this  general,  unorgan¬ 
ized,  and  undirected  nature.  It  simply  means  that  the  children 
are  out  in  the  streets  and  alleys  chasing  one  another  around  as  the 
occasion  or  impulse  may  direct.  Play  of  this  sort  usually  ends  up 
in  mischief  or  disorderliness,  with  the  subsequent  formation  of 
predatory  gangs.  The  favorite  game  among  the  boys  is  baseball. 
The  girls,  on  the  other  hand,  seem  to  have  no  outstanding  form  of 
play.  The  traditional  attitude  that  a  girl  is  supposed  to  work  or 
mind  the  baby  rather  than  waste  her  time  in  play  is  clearly  exem¬ 
plified  by  the  facts  revealed  in  these  tables.  The  large  percentage 
of  girls  who  report  “ helping  parents”  shows  that  the  main  activity, 
after  school  hours,  is  doing  housework.  Working  for  pay,  however, 
is  much  less  common  among  the  girls  than  among  the  boys,  as  over 
20  per  cent  of  the  latter  report  “  working  for  remuneration.”  The 
most  popular  form  of  evening  amusement  for  both  girls  and  boys 
is  going  to  the  movies.  In  this  respect  the  percentages  for  both 
sexes  are  about  equal.  From  20  to  25  per  cent  of  all  the  children 
report  attending  the  motion-picture  theater  on  both  Friday  and 
Saturday  evenings.  Another  fact  of  interest  in  regard  to  these 
tables  is  the  large  number  of  both  boys  and  girls  who  go  up  town 
on  Saturday  evening.  Of  the  girls  who  thus  reported  8  per  cent 
gave  no  particular  reason  for  their  action,  merely  making  such 
general  statements  as,  “ After  supper  I  went  up  town”  or  “On 
Saturday  night  I  went  up  town,”  or  as  one  girl  of  fourteen  put  it, 
“On  Saturday  night  I  went  up  town  for  awhile  and  then  I  went  to 
Olentangy  Park  and  danced  till  ten  o’clock.”  Two  main  factors 
are  conducive  to  this  going-up-town  habit;  first,  the  proximity  of 
the  neighborhood  to  the  center  of  the  city,  and  second,  the  indi¬ 
vidualism  of  the  modern  family  which  finds  its  extreme  expression 
in  such  neighborhoods  as  this. 

The  school  and  recreation. — There  are  three  public  schools  in  the 
district,  two  elementary  and  one  intermediate,  having  an  aggregate 
daily  attendance,  in  1919,  of  1,644  pupils.  The  two  elementary 
schools,  Fieser  and  Franklinton,  which  include  Grades  I  to  VI, 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  603 


draw  all  their  pupils  from  the  immediate  neighborhood  covered  by 
our  survey.  The  district  of  the  Avondale  intermediate  school, 
however,  extends  considerably  farther  west;  about  two-thirds  of  the 
pupils  attending  come  from  the  Hilltop  or  adjoining  territory. 

The  Fieser  School,  located  at  the  corner  of  State  and  Starling 
streets,  is  in  the  midst  of  the  most  broken-down  area  on  the  west 
side.  It  has  an  average  daily  attendance  of  approximately  450 
children  ranging  in  ages  from  six  to  twelve  years.  The  building 
is  old  and  very  ill-adapted  to  the  service  which  a  school  should 
perform  in  modern  community  life.  It  is  heated  by  hot  air  and 
has  no  ventilation  system  other  than  the  windows  and  doors. 
Moreover  it  contains  no  artificial  lighting  system  of  any  sort.  Not 
only  is  this  a  tremendous  handicap  to  the  general  work  of  the  day 
school  but  it  makes  it  impossible  to  use  the  building  at  night  for 
neighborhood  meetings. 

The  Fieser  School  has  a  total  play  space  of  approximately  23,000 
square  feet  which  is  divided  by  outbuildings  into  three  different 
areas.  Considering  that  there  are  about  450  pupils  attending  the 
school,  this  makes  an  average  play  space  of  about  50  square  feet 
per  child.  Taking  145  square  feet  per  child,  the  minimum  amount 
of  space  agreed  upon  by  experts  as  necessary  for  circle  games,  it  is 
obvious  that  Fieser  School  falls  far  below  this  standard. 

The  Franklin  ton  Elementary  School,  located  at  the  corner  of 
Broad  and  Sandusky  streets,  has  an  enrolment  this  year  (1919)  of 
55°  pupils.  There  is  a  total  ground  space  at  this  school  of  approxi¬ 
mately  10,000  square  feet  which  is  divided  into  two  long,  narrow 
strips,  one  about  18  feet  wide  used  by  the  boys,  the  other  15  feet 
wide  comprising  the  girls’  playground.  It  is  apparent  that  these 
strips  are  entirely  inadequate  for  any  sort  of  group  games.  They 
do  not  even  afford  room  for  slides,  teeters,  etc.,  nor  is  there  space 
adequate  for  the  playing  of  basket-ball.  The  school  has  no  gym¬ 
nasium;  one  room  in  the  basement  might  be  used  for  this  purpose 
if  it  were  properly  floored  and  ventilated. 

The  Avondale  Intermediate  School,  located  on  the  corner  of 
Avondale  and  Town  streets,  has  an  enrolment  of  about  600  pupils. 
It  has  a  play  space  of  approximately  40,000  square  feet  which  gives 
considerably  more  room  per  child  than  is  provided  at  the  Frank- 


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linton  School.  There  is  no  outdoor  playground  equipment  but  the 
principal  expects  to  start  basket-ball  and  indoor  baseball  soon. 
There  is  no  gymnasium  in  the  school. 

In  addition  to  the  fact  that  the  schools  of  the  neighborhood 
afford  but  little  opportunity  for  healthful  play  we  must  note  that 
the  district  facilities  for  outdoor  recreation  are  also  much  below  the 
average  for  the  city  as  a  whole.  The  houses  and  apartments  of  the 
neighborhood,  with  very  few  exceptions,  are  built  close  up  to  the 
sidewalks  leaving  no  lawn  or  play  spaces.  Further,  the  backyards 


are  small  and,  for  the  most  part,  filled  up  with  old  shacks  and  weeds 
making  them  inaccessible  for  play  purposes.  These  statements 
apply  particularly  to  the  eastern  half  of  the  district,  especially  to 
the  section  between  Grubb  Street  and  the  river. 

On  the  accompanying  map  (XII)  of  the  neighborhood  we  have 
shown  all  the  available  open  spaces  which  are  large  enough  for 
children’s  games.  It  will  be  noted  that  east  of  McDowell  Street  there 
is  not  a  single  vacant  lot  upon  which  the  children  may  play,  and  it 
may  also  be  said  of  this  region  that  there  is  scarcely  a  single  lawn  or 
patch  of  grass  big  enough  for  the  simplest  games  of  even  the  smallest 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  605 


children.  It  is  a  common  sight  during  any  afternoon  or  evening 
to  see  dozens  of  little  children  in  this  section  of  the  neighborhood 
huddled  together  in  some  grimy  alley  or  chasing  one  another  around 
a  telephone  pole  on  the  street  corner — human  nature,  both  meta¬ 
phorically  and  literally,  being  torn  around  by  the  hair  of  the  head. 

XI.  EDUCATION  AND  JUVENILE  DELINQUENCY 

For  a  general  conception  of  the  educational  status  of  this 
neighborhood  the  reader  is  referred  to  Table  XXIV.1 

TABLE  XXIV 

Percentage  of  Non-School  Attendance  by  Wards  of  Children 

6  to  20  Years  of  Age 


Ward 

No.  Attending 

No.  Not  At¬ 
tending 

Percentage  Not 
Attending 

8 . 

676 

4 

0.6 

16 . 

2,945 

251 

7.8 

5 . 

2,945 

402 

12.0 

7 . 

1,718 

325 

15.8 

6 . 

i,394 

478 

l6.6 

15 . 

1,668 

357 

17.6 

14 . 

1,588 

374 

19. I 

4 . 

2,096 

5i9 

19.8 

12 . 

812 

202 

I9.9 

11 . 

3,032 

761 

20.1 

1 . 

2,634 

704 

21  .  I 

10 . 

2,088 

704 

25.2 

3 . 

2,974 

1*125 

27.4 

13 . 

2,705 

1,299 

32.4 

2 . 

1,528 

963 

38.7 

9 . 

742 

586 

44.I 

Recalling  that  our  neighborhood  is  located  in  Wards  9  and  10, 
it  is  evident  that  a  relatively  large  percentage  of  its  young  people 
are  not  attending  school.  Ward  9  stands  at  the  bottom  of  the 
list  with  44.1  per  cent  of  the  age  group  in  question  not  attending 
school.  Ward  10  occupies  the  fifth  place  from  the  bottom,  with  a 
percentage  of  non-school  attendance  of  25.2. 

There  is  no  way  of  finding  out  what  proportion  of  the  non-school 
attendance  of  each  ward  falls  in  the  lower  years  of  the  age  group. 
Obviously,  however,  the  largest  part  of  it  is  made  up  of  children 
over  fourteen  years  of  age.  The  different  percentages  just  indi- 

1  These  figures  are  taken  from  the  unpublished  records  of  the  Columbus  Board  of 
Education,  1918. 


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cated  may  be  taken,  therefore,  as  a  rough  measure  of  the  extent 
to  which  the  young  people  of  the  various  wards  of  the  city  go  to 
high  school  or  college.  Ward  8  might  be  omitted  from  the  list 
inasmuch  as  it  comprises  the  central  business  section  of  the  city 
and  has  but  few  children  resident  in  it.  Moreover,  Wards  2,  3, 
and  13  with  their  relatively  poor  showing  should  be  studied  in 
connection  with  Map  I1  which  shows  the  distribution  of  national 
and  racial  groups  within  the  city.  It  will  be  observed  that  these 
are  areas  in  which  reside  large  negro  and  foreign  elements. 

No  attempt  was  made  to  obtain  information  relative  to  the 
question  of  retardation  of  the  children  of  the  schools  in  the  neigh¬ 
borhood.  But  in  a  recent  study,  made  by  the  department  of 
psychology  of  the  state  university,  the  children  of  Fieser  School 
were  rated  as  mentally  two  years  below  the  average  for  children 
of  the  same  age  in  a  school  located  in  one  of  the  higher  economic 
areas  of  the  city.2 

Fieser  School. — The  two  elementary  schools,  Fieser  and  Frank- 
linton,  are  both  very  much  overcrowded.  The  Fieser  School  tries 
to  obviate  this  condition  by  dividing  its  elementary  classes  into 
two  sections,  one  attending  from  8  to  11.30  a.m.,  and  the  other 
from  12:30  to  3  p.m.  The  school  has  an  open-window  or  “fresh- 
air”  class  which  on  the  date  of  inspection  had  an  enrolment  of 
eighteen  pupils.  These  pupils  attend  school  from  8  a.m.  to  3  p.m. 
and  are  served  their  noonday  meal  by  the  school  under  the  direction 
of  Dr.  Lenhart,  the  physician  in  charge.  Penny  lunches  are  served 
at  the  Fieser  School  at  10  a.m.  daily.  The  principal  states  that 
about  25  per  cent  of  the  children  patronize  these  lunches,  which 
consist  of  a  glass  of  whole  milk  and  some  graham  crackers.  The 
school  also  conducts  a  special  class  for  retarded  children.  This  class 
has  an  enrolment  of  sixteen  children,  most  of  whom  are  colored.3 

Juvenile  delinquency. — The  reader  is  referred  to  Map  V1  lor  a 
general  idea  of  the  territorial  distribution  of  the  “official”  cases  of 
juvenile  delinquency  for  a  single  year  period,  1918-19.  The  follow- 

1  See  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  XXVII  (September,  1921),  147. 

2  J.  W.  Bridges  and  Lillian  Coler,  “The  Relation  of  Intelligence  to  Social  Status,” 
Psychology  Review,  XXIV  (January,  1917),  p.  22. 

3  See  American  Journal  Sociology,  XXVII  (September,  1921),  166. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  607 


ing  map  of  the  neighborhood  shows  the  local  distribution  of  delin¬ 
quency  in  greater  detail.  Of  the  521  cases  of  juvenile  delinquency 
indicated  on  the  map  of  the  city,  36  fall  within  the  confines  of  the 
neighborhood.  While  this  is  a  larger  pro  rata  percentage  than  for 


the  city  as  a  whole,  still  the  neighborhood  shows  up  favorably  when 
compared  with  some  of  the  other  local  divisions  of  the  city. 

XII.  NEIGHBORHOOD  SENTIMENT 

In  the  course  of  time  every  section  and  quarter  of  a  city  takes  on  some¬ 
thing  of  the  character  and  quality  of  its  inhabitants.  Each  separate  part  of 
the  city  is  inevitably  stained  with  the  peculiar  sentiments  of  its  population. 
The  effect  of  this  is  to  convert  what  was  at  first  a  mere  geographical  expression 
into  a  neighborhood,  that  is  to  say,  a  locality  with  sentiments,  traditions,  and 
a  history  of  its  own.1 

Attachment  to  locality  is  probably  the  best  criterion  of  positive 
neighborhood  sentiment.  There  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  most 
people  after  living  for  a  time  in  a  certain  spot  or  locality  to  become 
so  psychologically  adjusted  to  their  physical  and  social  surround¬ 
ings  that  they  experience  a  feeling  of  discomfort  and  dissatisfaction 
when  transferred  to  a  new  environment.  We  are  all  familiar  with 

1  Park,  op.  cit.y  p.  579. 


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the  homesickness  of  the  young  person  on  the  event  of  his  first 
departure  from  his  native  village  and  his  longing  to  return  at  the 
first  opportunity  to  what  he  considers  to  be  “the  best  spot  on 
earth.”  In  the  city  environment  neighborhood  sentiment,  or 
attachment  to  locality,  has  become  largely  dissipated  owing  to  the 
transitory  nature  of  residence  and  the  absence  of  home  ownership. 
But  various  sections  of  city  life  differ  remarkably  in  regard  to  the 
extent  of  local  feeling  and  neighborhood  pride  exhibited.  In  some 
localities  within  the  city,  neighborhood  sentiment  is  a  negative 
factor,  expressing  itself  in  terms  of  disapproval  and  repulsion  with 
regard  to  local  surroundings,  while  in  other  areas  the  opposite 
sentiments  prevail,  those  of  local  pride  and  loyalty. 

From  the  standpoint  of  neighborhood  organization  it  is  impor¬ 
tant  to  know  the  general  attitudes  of  the  people  toward  their 
physical  and  social  surroundings.  Where  there  exists  general 
satisfaction  with  respect  to  locality  it  is  possible  to  enlist  interest 
in  neighborhood  up-building.  But  if  the  opposite  sentiments  pre¬ 
vail,  those  of  dissatisfaction  and  disapproval,  it  is  not  likely  that 
much  headway  can  be  made  in  building  up  interest  in  neighborhood 
institutions. 

An  attempt  was  made  in  our  survey  to  obtain  from  every  house¬ 
hold  the  prevailing  attitude  toward  the  neighborhood  and  the 
people  living  round  about.  Direct  questions  were  avoided,  but  in 
the  course  of  conversation  the  visitor  recorded  significant  state¬ 
ments  made  by  the  informant  pertaining  to  the  physical  and  social 
surroundings.  Obviously  it  is  impracticable  to  attempt  to  classify 
the  great  variety  of  remarks  quoted  by  the  investigators.  We  have 
selected  almost  at  random,  therefore,  two  streets,  one  from  the  east¬ 
ern  half  of  the  neighborhood  and  one  from  the  western  half.  The 
schedules  are  taken  in  order  for  these  two  streets  and  the  sentiments 
expressed  in  the  words  of  the  informant  are  recorded  without  selec¬ 
tion  or  discrimination.  Street  A  lies  west  of  Sandusky  Street  where 
over  50  per  cent  of  the  residents  own  their  homes.  Street  B,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  located  in  the  more  broken-down  region  near  the 
eastern  end  of  the  neighborhood  where  less  than  25  per  cent  of  the 
residents  own  their  homes. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  609 


The  following  lists  give  the  direct  expressions  of  neighborhood 
sentiment  for  the  two  streets  in  question: 

STREET  A 

We  like  the  neighborhood  very  much. 

Perfectly  satisfied,  afraid  I’ll  have  to  get  out  now  because  of  property 
exchanges  and  I’m  very  sorry  I  have  to  leave. 

Like  it  pretty  well — very  nice  neighbors. 

Very  good  dear  neighbors,  no  time  for  visiting. 

Like  it  very  much,  not  uppish  but  very  friendly. 

Fine  neighborhood,  couldn’t  be  better  for  us. 

Very  pleasant  neighborhood. 

Neighborhood  seems  attractive. 

Satisfied  with  neighborhood,  and  like  my  neighbors  very  much. 

Satisfied  with  neighborhood. 

I  like  neighborhood  very  much,  prefer  it  to  any  other  I  know  of. 

Pleasant  people  but  not  well  acquainted  with  them. 

I  like  it,  all  good  friends  in  neighborhood. 

Grand  neighborhood,  people  very  friendly  but  I  do  not  visit  much. 

Don’t  have  time  for  visiting. 

Like  my  neighbors  very  much. 

Very  nice  neighbors  and  neighborhood. 

Don’t  visit  back  and  forth  very  much  but  all  good  friends. 

Got  right  kind  of  neighbors,  just  like  one  family  in  helping  each  other. 
Neighborhood  couldn’t  be  better. 

There  never  was  a  better  set  of  neighbors,  all  willing  to  help  each  other. 
Very  much  attached  to  this  neighborhood. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  good  spirit  and  friendliness  in  our  neighborhood. 
Splendid  neighborhood,  I  like  my  neighbors,  but  do  not  visit  with  them 
a  great  deal. 

Perfectly  satisfied  with  the  neighborhood;  neighbors  are  all  nice  friendly 
people. 

STREET  B 

Neighborhood  just  average,  people  strange  and  quarrel  a  lot. 

I  don’t  like  it  and  don’t  mix  with  the  neighbors  but  have  to  stay  on  account 
of  my  boy. 

Rough  district,  I  don’t  speak  to  the  neighbors,  they  swear  and  drink  too 
much.  They  are  jealous  of  us. 

Would  like  to  move  out  east  again. 

Like  West  Side  but  not  this  street,  no  freedom,  I  hate  Mrs.  K. 

Don’t  like  neighbors,  they  are  hard  to  get  along  with,  fussy,  so  I  stay  to 
myself  and  bother  none  of  them. 


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Don’t  like  neighborhood,  want  to  move  away,  too  many  low  characters. 

My  husband  likes  East  Side  better  but  will  stay  here  though  with  me. 

Don’t  go  out  much  here,  don’t  like  my  neighbors. 

I  like  the  neighborhood  and  have  good  neighbors. 

Neighborhood  fine,  don’t  have  much  time  to  visit  neighbors. 

I  like  the  few  neighbors  I  know. 

Like  the  neighborhood. 

No  hard  feelings  among  neighbors. 

Don’t  like  it  but  have  to  put  up  with  it. 

Like  West  Side  but  not  this  street,  every  one  gets  along  fine  but  Mrs. - . 

Like  it  very  well,  have  good  neighbors. 

Don’t  like  it  here,  don’t  speak  to  the  neighbors. 

Not  well  acquainted,  don’t  go  any  place. 

Like  the  neighborhood  very  well. 

I  like  the  one  neighbor  that  I  know  all  right. 

I  like  Rich  Street  better,  people  here  think  they’re  better  than  I  am. 

I  know  all  the  neighbors  but  don’t  bother  with  them  at  all. 

Haven’t  been  here  long  but  like  the  neighbors  so  far. 

We  speak  to  each  other  but  don’t  visit  at  all. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  term  “  neighborhood  ”  in  these  expressions 
is  used  in  the  restricted  sense  as  implying,  for  the  most  part,  the 
street  on  which  the  family  resides,  or  at  most  not  more  than  the 
immediately  adjacent  streets.  And  the  “ neighbors”  are  the  people 
living  on  the  same  street  with  perhaps  the  families  on  the  street  in 
the  rear  whose  back  doors  are  adjacent. 

There  is  a  striking  difference  in  the  warmth  of  the  sentiments 
exhibited  in  these  two  lists.  Street  A  is  a  street  of  neighbors;  a 
street  of  wholesome  common  folk  who  have  lived  long  in  close 
proximity  and  have  developed  sentiments  of  loyalty  and  attach¬ 
ment  to  their  local  environment.  Street  B,  on  the  other  hand, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  families  in  the  middle  which  form,  as 
one  might  say,  a  “warm  spot”  of  neighborly  association,  represents 
the  result  of  a  forced  selection.  That  is  where  economic  necessity 
compels  people  of  unlike  attitudes  and  cultural  tastes  to  live  in 
close  proximity  to  one  another.  In  such  regions  there  can  be  no 
positive  neighborhood  sentiment;  hatred  and  avoidance  prevail 
until  opportunity  arises  for  moving  on. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  IN 
THE  CITY  OF  COLUMBUS,  OHIO — Concluded 


r.  d.  mckenzie 

University  of  Washington 


ABSTRACT 

Our  system  of  government  is  based  upon  the  assumption  of  the  territorial  group 
as  a  unit.  Modern  means  of  communication  and  transportation  have  to  a  con¬ 
siderable  extent  nullified  the  significance  of  spatial  proximity  as  a  group  bond.  All 
the  traditional  forms  of  political  and  social  organization  are  affected  thereby.  Wards 
and  administrative  districts  of  cities  as  a  rule  have  no  correlation  with  natural  group¬ 
ings  of  population.  Thus  the  influence  of  local  opinion  in  social  control  is  minimized. 
City  populations  tend  to  segregate  into  territorial  publics  having  similar  attitudes 
on  questions  pertaining  to  the  mores.  Such  similarity  of  attitude  is  not  so  pronounced 
on  economic  questions.  Rehabilitation  of  neighborhood  sentiment  in  a  city  is  a 
difficult  problem.  Anything  that  tends  to  stabilize  residence  and  give  to  the  neighbor¬ 
hood  a  unitary  character  may  serve  to  develop  neighborhood  consciousness. 


PART  III.  SOCIAL  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  NEIGHBORHOOD 

XIII.  THE  NEIGHBORHOOD  AS  THE  UNIT  OF  POLITICAL  AND 

SOCIAL  REFORM 

Our  entire  system  of  government,  municipal,  state,  and  national, 
is  based  on  the  assumption  of  the  locality  group  as  the  unit  of  rep¬ 
resentation  and  administration.  This,  of  course,  is  an  inheritance 
from  earlier  times  when  geographical  proximity  was  the  one  funda¬ 
mental  basis  of  group  life.  But  modern  means  of  communication 
and  transportation  together  with  the  recent  development  of  large 
interest  groups  whose  common  interest  transcends  geographical 
boundaries  have  undermined  the  foundations  of  our  political 
system  and  have  complicated  all  our  problems  of  social  reform. 
This  is  especially  true  with  reference  to  affairs  of  administration  in 
our  large  cities,  where  the  dominant  interest  groups  prevail  and 
where  life  for  the  majority  is  precarious  and  transitory. 

Localities  do  not  stand  for  special  interests,  being  areas  of  community 
which  circumscribe  only  a  very  limited  and,  with  the  extension  of  community 
less  and  less  definite  exclusiveness  of  social  type  and  interest.  It  is  in  very 
great  measure  the  mere  convenience  of  contiguity  rather  than  the  intrinsic 

780 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  781 


distinctiveness  of  local  interests  which  makes  the  locality  an  effective  social 
unit.  But  in  the  central  association  that  convenience  no  longer  counts,  and 
here  organization  by  local  divisions  is,  except  under  special  circumstances,  a 
mere  impediment  to  the  activity  of  the  association.  The  case  of  representative 
government  has  interest  in  this  connection.  While  the  unit  of  election  remains 
locality,  the  division  of  interest  within  the  central  legislature  scarcely  ever 
follows  the  lines  of  locality.  Consequently  it  becomes  very  difficult  to  attain 
any  form  of  true  representation  on  the  basis  of  local  election.  Members 
ostensibly  elected  to  represent  a  locality,  often  in  fact  represent,  though  inade¬ 
quately  on  account  of  the  mode  of  election,  not  merely  the  broad  policy  of  a 
party,  but  the  special  interest  of  some  association,  some  trade  or  profession  or 
church  or  other  grouping.  This  cross  representation  is  creating  one  of  the 
most  difficult  problems  within  the  sphere  of  political  science.1 

In  general  the  criticisms  of  our  city  government,  as  far  as  they 
pertain  to  the  neighborhood,  may  be  divided  into  two  classes. 
First,  the  excessive  localism  revealed  by  some  of  the  more  stable 
and  stronger  city  neighborhoods  tends  to  exploit  the  larger  interests 
of  the  city  in  general.  This  type  of  situation  is  illustrated  in  the 
following  quotation  from  the  Pittsburgh  Survey. 

It  is  not  suprising,  therefore,  that  Pittsburgh  early  became  a  hotbed  of 
petty  politics.  As  in  other  cities  councilmen  chosen  by  wards  throve  through 
catering  to  local  needs  while  indifferent  or  negligent  to  the  weightier  interests 
of  the  city  as  a  whole.  Thus,  whole  sections  of  well-paved  streets  might  mark 
the  bailiwick  of  some  aggressive  ward  councilman,  who  none  the  less  had  a  hand 
in  giving  these  same  streets  along  with  the  main  thorofares  of  Pittsburgh,  in 
perpetuity  to  the  street  car  monopoly.  Hence  the  saying:  “Any  ward  can  be 
bought  for  a  new  side  walk  or  a  pair  of  wooden  stairs.”  Local  benefit  naturally 
became  the  test  of  discharge  of  official  duty,  the  street  paving  schedule,  the 

pork  barrel  of  the  city  budget . Even  justice  has  been  so  diverse  an 

interest  that  each  ward  chooses  its  own  local  magistrate,  before  whom,  none  the 
less,  may  be  brought  a  case  from  anywhere  in  the  city.  The  only  concern  of 
an  alderman  is  to  please  his  “constits”;  let  him  “soak”  the  fellow  outside  his 
district  and  his  re-election  was  secure.2 

On  the  other  hand,  the  utter  lack  of  neighborhood  sentiment, 
so  common  in  many  sections  of  our  large  cities,  provides  a  fruitful 
field  for  the  establishment  of  our  notorious  boss  system  of  govern¬ 
ment.  The  boss  seizes  upon  the  opportunity  to  act  the  part  of  the 
good  neighbor  among  an  element  of  the  population  whose  precari- 

1  R.  M.  Maciver,  Community  (1917 ),  p.  258. 

2  Pittsburgh  Survey ,  I,  45-46. 


782 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


ous  conditions  of  life  emphasize  the  value  of  the  kindly,  personal, 
neighborly  relations,  but  at  the  same  time  create  indifference 
toward  the  more  general  interests  of  the  neighborhood  or  com¬ 
munity  as  a  whole. 

A  successful  ward  boss  must  be  a  worker,  capable  by  his  example  of  inspir¬ 
ing  others  to  similar  industry.  He  must  not  be  content  with  doing  the  work 
that  comes  to  him,  he  must  look  for  things  to  do.  As  his  work  consists  mainly 
in  doing  favors  for  voters,  he  must  inspire  requests  as  well  as  grant  them. 
Therefore  he  encourages  voters  to  come  to  him  for  help  when  they  are  out  of 
work  or  in  any  other  sort  of  trouble.  When  a  voter  is  arrested,  the  ward  or 
district  leader  will  lend  his  services  to  secure  bail  or  to  provide  counsel,  or  will 
arrange  to  have  the  offender’s  fine  paid  for  him.  Then  there  are  the  day-to-day 
favors  which  the  local  boss  stands  ready  to  do  for  all  who  come  to  him,  provided 
they  are  voters  or  can  influence  voters.  These  services  cannot  be  even  recapit¬ 
ulated  here,  for  their  name  is  legion.  To  one  he  lends  money  to  stall  a  land¬ 
lord  whose  patience  is  exhausted;  to  a  family  of  another  he  sends  fuel  or 
provisions  in  time  of  need.  “He  buys  medicine  for  the  sick  and  helps  to  bury 
the  dead.  He  dispenses  an  ample  hospitality  in  the  saloons;  as  soon  as  he 
comes  in,  known  and  unknown,  gather  about  him,  and  he  treats  everybody. 
He  is  the  only  one  who  does  not  drink,  for  he  is  on  duty.”  Tested  by  his  acts, 
the  boss  is  chief  among  neighborhood  philanthropists;  judged  by  the  motives 
that  prompt  his  acts,  he  is  a  serpent  spreading  the  slime  of  political  debauchery 
over  whole  sections  of  the  community.  With  the  submerged  tenth  (it  would 
be  more  accurately  termed  the  submerged  half)  of  a  great  city’s  population, 
however,  it  is  the  acts  and  not  the  motives  of  the  man  that  weigh.1 

Students  of  municipal  affairs  disagree  concerning  plans  for  the 
reconstruction  of  city  government.  Some  authorities,  recognizing 
the  present  disorganized  state  of  the  city  neighborhood,  advocate 
the  selection  of  representatives  at  large  without  respect  to  neigh¬ 
borhood  or  vocational  interests;2  others  would  even  go  so  far  as  to 
abolish  entirely  the  geographical  unit  of  representation  and  substi¬ 
tute  for  it  representation  on  the  basis  of  vocational  or  interest 
groups;3  while  others  again,  realizing  the  importance  of  neighbor¬ 
hood  sentiment  as  a  civic  force,  would  attempt  to  rehabilitate  and 
revivify  the  neighborhood  making  it  function  once  more  as  a 

1  Munro,  The  Government  of  American  Cities ,  pp.  175-76. 

2  This  is  the  position  taken  by  exponents  of  commission  government.  Cf.  E.  S. 
Bradford,  Commission  Government  in  American  Cities  (1911),  p.  305. 

3  For  a  concise  statement  of  the  views  of  the  “Political  Pluralists”  see  M.  P. 
Follett,  The  New  State  (1920),  chap,  xxviii. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  783 


community  institution.1  There  is  general  agreement,  however, 
that  our  present  ward  system  of  representation  is  a  failure. 

The  ward  councillor  represents  his  own  ward,  and  that  alone.  He  forgets 
that  the  city  is  more  than  the  sum  of  its  wards,  and  that  the  public  opinion  of 
the  city  may  be  different  from  the  totality  of  neighborhood  clamors.  Ward 
divisions  are  at  best  ephemeral:  unlike  the  French  arrondissement,  the  American 
ward  has  rarely  any  traditions  and  as  a  unit  of  area  exacts  no  spontaneous 
loyalty  from  the  people  who  live  in  it.  What  passes  for  ward  loyalty  is,  more 
commonly  than  not,  local  prejudice  fostered  by  politicians  to  serve  their  own 
personal  ends.  Moreover,  the  concentration  of  single  ethnic  elements  in 
particular  sections  of  the  city  makes  it  practically  certain  that,  under  the  ward 
system,  some  members  of  the  council  will  owe  their  election  to  nothing  but 
their  proficiency  in  appealing  to  racial  or  religious  or  social  narrowness.  The 
ward  system  likewise  affords  a  standing  incentive  to  that  most  vicious  of  all 
American  contributions  to  the  science  of  practical  politics,  the  gerrymander; 
it  makes  possible  the  control  of  a  majority  in  the  council  by  a  minority  of  the 
city’s  voters,  and,  unless  redistricting  is  resorted  to  frequently,  it  fosters  gross 
inequalities  in  representation.  The  term  “ward”  has  accordingly  come  into 
disrepute  in  the  terminology  of  American  government,  a  somewhat  curious 
fact,  by  the  way,  since  in  England,  where  councillors  are  and  always  have  been 
chosen  from  wards,  no  such  odium  has  been  developed.  Its  presence  here  is 
doubtless  explained  by  the  fact  that  in  American  ward  representation,  ward 
politics,  and  ward  organization  have  come  to  be  associated  in  the  public  mind 
with  bossism,  trickery,  and  almost  everything  else  that  is  politically  demoraliz¬ 
ing.  A  feeling  so  deeply  lodged  can  scarcely  be  without  some  substantial 
foundation.2 

Although  the  territorial  unit  of  representation  is  tending  to 
become  a  thing  of  the  past  in  American  city  government,  yet  the 
unit  for  administrative  purposes  still  remains  the  geographical  area. 
Cities  are  districted  into  a  large  number  of  local  units  to  meet  the 

1  M.  P.  Follett  is  one  of  the  best-known  advocates  of  the  rehabilitation  of  the 
neighborhood  as  a  political  and  social  unit.  The  thesis  of  her  recent  book,  The  New 
State ,  is  that  intelligent  participation  in  social  control  can  be  achieved  only  through  the 
conscious  reconstruction  and  federation  of  such  small  territorial  groups  as  the  neigh¬ 
borhood. 

As  a  unit  of  social  reform,  the  neighborhood  has  received  the  attention  of  social 
workers  for  several  decades.  The  social  settlement  movement  represents  the  first 
attempt  to  institutionalize  the  social  activities  of  the  neighborhood.  The  present 
trend  of  this  movement  is  evidenced  in  the  increasing  popularity  of  the  social  center 
activities,  community  councils,  and,  in  a  still  more  comprehensive  way,  in  the  social 
Unit  Plan  of  Cincinnati. 

2  Munro,  The  Government  of  American  Cities,  pp.  191-92. 


784 


TEE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


administrative  problems  of  the  various  departments  of  city  govern¬ 
ment.  Each  department  subdivides  the  city  into  geographical 
units  adjusted  to  suit  its  peculiar  administrative  purposes  without 
respect  to  the  natural  groupings  of  population,  and  without  con¬ 
sideration  of  the  geographical  subdivisions  made  by  other 
departments  of  city  government. 

Attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  one  of  the  things  which  make 
city  government  inherently  difficult,  is  the  lack  of  neighborhood  feeling  which 
seems  invariably  to  be  produced  by  city  life.  If  each  branch  of  the  city  govern¬ 
ment,  and  each  city  executive  department,  forms  districts  to  suit  its  own  con¬ 
venience  merely,  it  is  almost  a  certainty  that  there  will  be  almost  as  many 
series  of  different  districts  as  there  are  branches  of  city  government  and  city 
executive  departments.  The  result  is  that  such  a  neighborhood  feeling  as  may 
exist  is  disintegrated,  and  that  it  becomes  impossible,  so  long  as  this  administra¬ 
tive  diversity  continues,  for  such  a  neighborhood  feeling  to  develop.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  care  were  taken  to  make  the  election  districts  the  same  as  the 
judicial  districts  and  to  cause  these  to  conform,  in  some  way,  to  the  police,  fire, 
and  other  districts,  if  the  district  court-house,  the  fire  engine-house,  the  police 
station-house,  and  even  the  school-house  in  given  parts  of  the  city  were  situated, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  city  geography,  near  each  other — placed  perhaps  in 
or  around  a  small  playground  or  park, — it  would  be  possible  to  develop  civic 
centers  which  would  tend  to  encourage  the  development  of  neighborhood  spirit. 
It  is  quite  true  that  the  convenience  of  the  departments  might  be  interfered 
with,  but  the  loss  suffered  by  the  departments  would  be  more  than  compensated 
for  by  the  development  of  neighborhood  spirit,  and  in  many  instances  as  well 
by  the  greater  convenience  of  the  citizen  who  would  find  that  his  business  with 
the  city  government  could  be  conducted  with  greater  ease  than  under  conditions 
where  the  city  districts  bore  no  relation  to  each  other.  Under  the  plan  which 
has  been  outlined,  of  course  the  districts  would  be  more  permanent  than  at 
present,  while  the  civic  centers  which  might  develop  would,  of  necessity,  be 
absolutely  permanent.  The  changes  of  population  which  are  going  on  so 
continuously  in  the  city  would  make  the  problem  of  district  representation  a 
different  one  from  what  it  is  where  the  districts  are  not  permanent  but  are 
changed  to  suit  the  changes  of  population.  The  problem  would  not,  however, 
be  one  of  great  difficulty,  for,  instead  of  establishing  single  districts  as  at 
present,  it  would  be  possible  to  make  provision  for  districts  whose  representa¬ 
tion  would  vary  with  their  population. 

The  plan  which  has  been  outlined  is  one  which  to  a  large  degree  has  been 
adopted  in  Paris.  Paris  is  divided  into  twenty  districts,  each  of  which  has  a 
civic  center — the  mairie — at  which  are  found  the  office  of  the  maire ,  in  this  case 
a  district  and  not  a  city  officer — generally  a  city  library,  and  the  local  office  of 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  785 


the  charities  department.  The  mairie  itself  is  usually  situated  in  a  small  open 
space  or  park.  The  twenty  districts,  in  addition  to  being  thus  administrative 
districts,  are  also  election  and  judicial  districts.  In  this  case,  notwithstanding 
their  differences  in  population,  they  are  equally  represented  on  the  city  council. 
So  far,  however,  in  the  United  States  little  attention  seems  to  have  been  given 
by  the  city  governments  to  this  important  matter,  and  the  convenience 
of  the  administrative  departments  alone  has  been  considered.  The  result  is 
that  an  opportunity  has  not  been  availed  of  either  to  preserve  or  to  develop 
neighborhood  feeling,  or  to  secure  an  architectural  effect  which  would  render 
city  life  much  more  attractive  than  it  is  at  present.1 

If  the  neighborhood  is  ever  to  be  organized  as  a  political  or 
social  unit,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  formal  super¬ 
structure  shall  be  made  to  coincide  as  nearly  as  possible  with  the 
natural  neighborhood  groupings  of  the  population.  It  is  a  remark¬ 
able  fact  that  the  most  prominent  advocates  of  neighborhood 
reconstruction  have  failed  to  take  cognizance  of  this  necessity.  It 
is  surely  apparent  that  any  effective  system  of  community  planning 
must  take  account  of  the  divergent  attitudes  of  the  various  com¬ 
munity  groups;  and  this  is  just  as  important  with  respect  to  the 
locality  groups  as  it  is  with  respect  to  the  trade  union  or  chamber 
of  commerce. 

It  is,  of  course,  not  always  an  easy  problem  to  locate  the  bound¬ 
aries  of  natural  neighborhood  groups.  F requently  one  neighborhood 
blends  into  another  without  any  objective  signs  of  demarcation.  On 
the  other  hand,  areas  of  similar  objective  characteristics  may  be  in- 
habitated  by  family  groups  whose  interests  and  attitudes  are  entirely 
irreconcilable. 

I  shall  now  present  the  results  of  an  attempt  to  study  neighbor¬ 
hood  group  attitudes  in  the  city  of  Columbus.  My  study  is  based 
on  data  obtained  from  the  records  of  the  Board  of  Elections.  The 
geographical  units  for  the  collecting  and  recording  of  data  on  all 
subjects  on  which  the  city’s  electorate  votes  are  the  precincts  and 
wards.  Columbus  is  divided  into  sixteen  wards  having  a  total  of 
262  precincts.  The  precinct  is  quite  small,  including  but  one  or 
two  city  blocks  and  having  an  average  registered  electorate  of  less 
than  two  hundred. 

1  Frank  J.  Goodnow,  City  Government  in  the  United  States  (1906),  pp.  201-3. 


786 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


I  shall  attempt  to  discover  the  territorial  distribution  of  the 
voting  public1  son  a  number  of  issues  which  have  come  before  the 
electorate  during  the  past  few  years.  Municipal  questions  divide 
the  voting  public  into  two  groups — those  in  favor  and  those  opposed. 
After  a  campaign  which  varies  in  intensity  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  issue,  a  vote  is  taken  and  the  result  apparently  accepted  by 
both  sides.  The  geographical  distribution  of  the  losing  minority 
seems  of  little  consequence.  From  the  standpoint  of  law  enforce¬ 
ment,  however,  it  becomes  a  very  significant  matter  whether  one 
city  neighborhood  has  imposed  its  will  on  a  numerically  smaller 
neighborhood  entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  the  decision.  With¬ 
out  the  support  of  the  local  opinion  of  the  neighborhood  it  becomes 
extremely  difficult  to  enforce  legislative  enactments.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  losing  minority  does  not  happen  to  be  segregated 
in  particular  neighborhoods,  but  is  scattered  evenly  throughout  the 
city,  the  question  of  law  enforcement  is  of  a  much  more  simple 
nature. 

In  order  to  ascertain  the  types  of  municipal  questions  on  which 
local  segregation  of  voters  takes  place,  I  have  made  a  study  of  the 
voting  records  on  eight  different  issues  on  which  the  electorate  of 
Columbus  have  voted  during  the  past  few  years.  The  percentage 
of  affirmative  votes  on  each  of  the  eight  municipal  questions  re¬ 
corded  in  Table  XXV  has  been  determined  for  each  ward.  The 
results  are  compared  with  the  percentage  of  the  affirmative  votes 
on  each  issue  for  the  city  as  a  whole.  The  deviations  of  each  ward 
from  the  city’s  average  is  thus  taken  as  a  measure  of  the  ward 
segregation  of  voters  on  each  question. 

This  table  shows  very  distinctly  that  there  is  much  greater 
segregation  of  voters  on  subjects  pertaining  to  the  mores,  or  social 
customs,  than  on  subjects  which  deal  with  economic  questions.  In 
the  first  group  of  subjects,  designated  Class  A,  the  ward  deviations 
from  the  city’s  average  range  from  6  to  1 2 — a  fact  which  shows  that 
there  is  a  very  pronounced  local  bunching  of  similar  attitudes  on 

1  Any  unorganized  association  of  individuals  bound  together  by  common  opinions, 
sentiments,  or  desires  and  too  numerous  for  each  to  maintain  personal  relations  with 
the  others,  constitutes  a  public  in  the  broadest  sense  of  the  term.” — W.  J.  Shepard, 
“Public  Opinion,”  Amer.  Jour,  of  SocioL,  XV,  36. 


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THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


these  questions.  Wards  1 5  and  16,  which  show  the  highest  positive 
deviations,  stand  in  striking  contrast  to  Wards  2,  3,  and  9,  which 
show  almost  as  large  negative  deviations  from  the  average  for  the 
city  as  a  whole.  With  respect  to  the  economic  issues,  grouped  in 
Class  B,  the  ward  deviations  from  the  city’s  average  are  relatively 
slight.  On  no  subject  is  the  average  deviation  for  all  the  wards  in 
Class  B  as  great  as  that  found  for  any  of  the  issues  in  Class  A.  The 
most  conspicuous  bunching  of  opposites  is  found  in  Wards  3  and 
15,  especially  on  the  city  tax  levy  issue  of  1917. 

Although  small  deviations  are  found  on  the  School  Bond  issue 
of  1917,  nevertheless,  from  the  standpoint  of  community  interest 
and  campaign  enthusiasm,  this  was  an  unusually  hotly  contested 
local  issue.  The  two  publics  concerned,  however,  were  geographic¬ 
ally  dispersed  almost  uniformly  over  the  entire  city.  Athough  the 
final  vote  stood  9,738  for,  to  22,918  against,  not  a  single  precinct  in 
the  city  voted  a  majority  in  favor  of  the  proposed  bond  issue. 

There  seems  to  be  little  correlation  between  high  economic 
status  and  the  tendency  to  support  measures  involving  an  increase 
in  taxation.  While  Wards  4  and  5  rank  highest  in  the  city  with 
respect  to  economic  status,  still,  on  the  average,  they  do  not  support 
economic  measures  as  well  as  Ward  9  which  stands  at  the  bottom 
of  the  economic  scale  for  the  city.  Furthermore,  it  is  interesting 
to  note  that  the  deviations  of  Wards  1,2,  and  3,  wards  which  com¬ 
prise  the  large  German  neighborhood,  are  negative  on  all  questions 
listed  in  our  table;  while  the  deviations  in  Wards  14,  15,  and  16 
are  positive  on  all  issues.  Wards  9  and  io1  have  negative  deviations 
on  all  issues  in  Class  A  but  tend  to  support  taxation  measures. 
This  may  be  partially  accounted  for  by  the  relatively  small  number 
of  large  taxpayers  in  these  wards. 

Let  us  now  examine  more  closely  the  territorial  distribution  of 
the  publics  supporting  and  opposing  each  of  the  foregoing  subjects 
grouped  in  Class  A,  as  representing  the  mores,  that  is,  questions 
involving  conceptions  of  right  and  wrong.  Of  course  the  ward  is 
too  large  a  geographical  unit  to  furnish  a  true  picture  of  the  details 
of  local  sentiment  on  these  subjects.  Local  groups  of  diametrically 
opposite  points  of  view  are  frequently  bunched  together  within  the 

1  These  wards  embrace  the  disorganized  neighborhood  already  studied. 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  789 


same  ward.  The  precinct,  therefore,  is  a  better  unit  than  the  ward, 
to  bring  into  relief  the  natural  boundaries  of  the  local  group.  In 
order  to  illustrate  the  various  regional  attitudes  on  questions 
pertaining  to  the  mores  I  have  prepared  Maps  XIV,  XV,  and  XVI. 


These  maps  are  constructed  on  the  basis  of  the  voting  precinct  and 
represent  the  percentage  of  electors  for  each  precinct  voting  affirma- 


7Q0 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


tively  on  the  three  subjects  in  question — prohibition,  woman’s 
suffrage,  and  the  non-employment  of  women  in  liquor  shops. 

The  similarity  of  shading  of  the  various  sections  of  the  city  in 
all  three  of  these  maps  is  significant.  The  local  areas  that  supported 


Map  XV 

prohibition  invariably  supported  woman’s  suffrage  to  approximately 
the  same  degree.  The  areas  surrounding  the  central  business 
section  of  the  city  stand  out  conspicuously  as  opposed  to  both 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE 


prohibition  and  woman’s  suffrage  and  in  favor  of  the  employment  of 
women  in  liquor  shops;  while  the  eastern,  western,  and  northern 
extremities  of  the  city — the  three  leading  residential  areas — are 


strong  supporters  of  the  first  two  issues  and  opposers  of  the  third 
issue. 

In  the  process  of  the  sifting  and  sorting  of  population  within  a 
city,  there  is  a  tendency  for  people  of  similar  mores  to  become 


792 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


grouped  together  in  neighborhood  association.1  And  it  is  only  in 
the  decision  of  questions  involving  the  mores  that  the  specific 
group  character  of  these  local  areas  comes  into  prominence.  The 
consistency  of  attitudes  displayed  by  the  various  local  regions  on 
questions  dealing  with  the  mores  is  remarkable.  Not  only  did  the 
Columbus  vote  on  prohibition  for  consecutive  years  show  almost 
precisely  the  same  results,  as  far  as  local  segregation  of  opinion  is 
concerned,  but  the  votes  on  the  other  subjects,  more  or  less  kindred, 
show  almost  identical  distribution  of  supporters  and  opposers. 
The  ward  distribution  of  opinion  on  a  number  of  such  subjects  is 
graphically  shown  in  Graph  I. 

The  points  are  arbitrarily  connected  to  assist  the  eye  in  following 
the  ward  fluctuations  on  these  subjects.  The  correlation  of  ward 
opinions  on  these  three  subjects  is  conspicious.  Obviously  the 
voter  who  favored  woman’s  suffrage  voted  also  for  prohibition,  and 
for  the  non-employment  of  women  in  liquor  shops. 

The  lower  line  graphically  representing  the  relative  economic 
status  of  the  different  wards,  bears  an  interesting  similarity  of 
fluctuations  to  those  of  the  lines  illustrating  ward  opinion  on  the 
three  subjects  in  question.  Wards  4,  5,  15,  and  16,  which  stand 
high  in  economic  status  are  the  strongest  supporters  of  each  of  the 
three  municipal  issues;  while  Ward  9,  which  has  the  lowest 
economic  rating,  shows  the  lowest  affirmative  vote  on  these  issues. 

The  correlation  of  opinion  on  these  subjects  may  be  shown  still 
more  clearly  by  observing  the  precinct  distribution  of  votes  for  a 
single  ward.  There  are  too  many  precincts  to  make  it  practicable 
to  show  this  distribution  for  the  entire  city.  But  the  distribution 
of  opinion  within  one  ward  will  serve  as  an  example  of  the  general 

1  Similarity  of  attitudes,  however,  is  not  in  itself  a  criterion  of  group  consciousness. 
It  is  necessary  that  the  individual  members  of  the  group  shall  be  aware  of  the  similarity 
of  their  attitudes.  Referring  to  the  Polish  peasant,  Thomas  and  Znaniecki,  say, 
“The  manner  in  which  social  opinion  holds  the  community  together  is  easily  analyzed. 
Any  extraordinary  occurrence  becomes  for  a  certain  time  the  focus  of  attention  of  all 
the  members  of  the  community,  an  identical  attitude  toward  this  is  developed,  and 
each  member  of  the  community  is  conscious  that  he  shares  the  general  attitude  or  that 
his  attitude  is  shared  by  the  rest  of  the  community.  These  are  the  three  original 
elements  of  the  mechanism  of  social  opinion:  the  phenomenon,  the  identity  of  attitude, 
and  the  consciousness  of  this  identity.” — The  Polish  Peasant  in  Europe  and  America , 
I,  145- 


GRAPH  I 


Percentage 

of 

Affirmative 

Votes 


Prohibition 


—  —  Woman’s  suffrage 

-  ■  Non-employment  of  women  in  liquor  shops 


Note.— Economic  status  is  determined  by  dividing  total  tax  returns,  per  ward, 
on  household  furniture  by  total  number  of  electors  per  ward. 


794 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


tendency.  Graph  II  indicates  the  percentage  of  voters  in  each 
precinct  in  Ward  3,  who  voted  in  favor  of  the  three  issues: 
woman’s  suffrage,  prohibition,  and  the  non-employment  of  women 
in  places  where  liquor  is  sold. 

While  the  percentages  of  affirmative  votes  do  not  fluctuate 
similarly  in  every  case  still  it  is  very  plain  that  there  is  a  direct 

GRAPH  II 

Precinct  Distribution  of  Votes  on  Three  Issues — Ward  3 

—————  Prohibition 

-  —  —  Woman’s  suffrage 

— —  -  — —  Non-employment  of  women  in  liquor  shops 

Percent- 


Note. — Precincts  are  arranged  geographically  from  west  to  east 


correlation  of  opinion  on  these  three  issues.  Moreover,  it  is  evident 
that  there  is  a  decided  regional  divergence  of  opinion  within  the 
boundaries  of  this  ward.  Precincts  M,  N,  and  O,  which  lie  in  the 
eastern  end  of  the  ward,  represent  opposite  attitudes  to  those  of 
such  precincts  as  B  and  S,  which  occupy  the  western  section  of  the 
ward,  bordering  on  Sixth  Street. 

It  is  clear  to  everyone  that  ward  boundaries,  as  a  rule,  are  purely 
artificial,  and  do  not,  therefore,  represent  the  natural  groupings 
of  population  within  a  city.  However,  all  wards  in  Columbus  are 


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THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


not  equally  artificial.  Some  show  a  much  greater  tendency  toward 
homogeneity  and  coincidence  with  natural  local  groupings  than 
others.  In  order  to  discover  the  comparative  homogeneity  of  the 
different  wards  of  Columbus  I  have  made  a  study  of  the  precinct 
variations  of  opinion  for  each  ward.  The  method  employed  was 
as  follows;  the  total  percentage  of  affirmative  votes  in  each  ward 
on  each  of  the  four  subjects  indicated  on  Table  XXVI,  was  taken 
as  the  basis.  Then  the  percentage  of  affirmative  votes  on  each 
subject  for  each  precinct  within  the  ward  was  compared  with  this, 
and  the  deviations  averaged.  Table  XXVI  gives  the  result  of  this 
tabulation  for  all  the  wards  of  the  city. 

A  few  interesting  facts  are  revealed  in  this  table.  In  the  first 
place  it  is  quite  clear  that  there  is  considerable  difference  in  the 
extent  of  solidarity  in  the  various  wards  of  the  city.  Ward  2  stands 
out  conspicuously  as  distinctly  the  most  homogeneous  ward.  With 
its  average  deviation  on  all  subjects  of  but  3 . 8,  it  stands  in  striking 
contrast  to  its  neighboring  Ward  3,  which  has  an  average  deviation 
of  9 . 2 ;  and  to  Ward  6,  which  has  an  equally  high  average.  In  fact 
Ward  2  consistently  shows  greater  homogeneity  on  all  issues  than 
any  other  ward  in  the  city,  with  the  two  slight  exceptions  of  Wards 
5  and  7,  in  item  three,  and  in  these  particular  cases  the  differences 
are  extremely  small. 

The  precinct  deviations  from  the  ward  averages  for  Wards  2 
and  3  are  graphically  represented  in  Graph  III. 

With  the  single  exception  of  Precinct  A,  which  stands  at  the 
northeast  corner  of  the  ward,  there  is  extremely  little  geographical 
bunching  of  votes  in  Ward  2.  Ward  3,  on  the  other  hand,  shows 
the  opposite  tendency.  Its  precinct  fluctuations  vary  from  17  to 
62  per  cent  of  the  electors  voting  in  favor  of  prohibition. 

The  superior  homogeneity  of  Ward  2  is  due  to  the  fact  that  this 
ward  is  inhabitated  almost  exclusively  by  a  single  nationality, 
Germans.  Ward  3,  on  the  contrary,  is  composed  of  a  number  of 
different  foreign  groups  in  addition  to  a  large  American  population. 

XIV.  CONCLUSIONS 

A  few  conclusions  may  be  drawn  from  this  study  of  local  opinion. 
First,  the  population  of  a  city  tends  to  segregate  itself  into  locality 
groups  possessing  similar  cultural  and  moral  values;  second,  issues 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE 


involving  economic  expenditure  reveal  more  reflection  and  personal 
choice  on  the  part  of  the  voter  than  do  issues  pertaining  to  the 
mores ;  third,  the  ward  is  not  a  unit  of  opinion  on  any  issue  except 
where  its  boundaries  happen  to  coincide  with  the  natural  cultural 
and  ethnic  groupings  of  the  population. 

Those  interested  in  the  rehabilitation  of  the  city  neighborhood 
must,  if  they  are  to  succeed,  take  into  consideration  the  dominant 

GRAPH  III 

Comparative  Homogeneity  of  Wards  2  and  3 
As  illustrated  by  precinct  distribution  of  affirmative  votes  on  the  issue  of  prohibition,  1918 

. ■  ■ .  Ward  2 

—  —  —  Ward  3 


Precincts 


forces  at  work  strengthening  or  disintegrating  the  locality  groups. 
An  efficient  scheme  of  neighborhood  reconstruction  must  take 
cognizance  of  the  natural  groupings  of  the  population,  and  efforts 
must  be  made  to  stabilize  such  groupings  as  far  as  possible  by 
establishing  community  safeguards  against  encroaching  disturbing 
factors.  On  the  other  hand,  efforts  must  be  made  to  give  to  each 
neighborhood  a  physical  unitary  character  sufficient  to  differentiate 
it  from  surrounding  localities.  This,  of  course,  will  involve  a 
systematic  scheme  of  city  planning.  The  following  quotation 


Percentage 

of 

Affirmative 

Votes 


798 


THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


indicates  that  this  subject  is  already  receiving  consideration  from 
experts  on  city  planning: 

There  is  then  a  need  today,  from  the  standpoint  of  city  planning,  for  a 
standard  political  area  corresponding  to  the  city  neighborhood — or  if  one 
answers  that  there  are  no  such  things  as  city  neighborhoods,  then  for  the  city 
neighborhoods  that  ought  to  exist.  A  large  city  should  be  divided  into  local 
or  neighborhood  governments,  presumably  elective,  which  should,  under  the 
city  government,  have  charge  of  certain  physical  interests  of  the  district.  The 
desirability  of  having  real  city  neighborhoods  matching  certain  city  planning 
needs — and,  though  meeting  these,  realizing  also  certain  spiritual  ends — neigh¬ 
borhoods  defined  and  vitalized  by  the  possession  accordingly  of  certain  govern¬ 
ing  powers,  is  enforced  in  many  ways. 

It  is  emphasized  by  the  monotonous  lack  of  local  structural  design  and  thus 
of  efficient  organic  character  in  our  outspread  cities,  looked  at  as  wholes.  It  is 
emphasized  by  the  struggling  efforts  of  groups  of  persons  in  various  localities, 
through  local  improvement  clubs,  to  affect  their  local  physical  conditions  by 
their  joint  efforts,  and  by  the  fact  that,  as  things  are,  a  great  part  of  the  people 
feel  helpless  or  indifferent  concerning  these  matters.  It  is  emphasized  by  pro¬ 
jects  which  have  been  made  by  architects  and  sociologists  to  design  fit  groupings 
for  local  institutions,  business,  cultural  and  social,  with  a  view  for  the  better 
performance  of  their  proper  functions  and  a  better  symbolizing  of  the  idea  of 
neighborhood  solidarity. 

It  is  emphasized  by  the  zealous  and  in  many  places  locally  rooted  social 
center  movement,  which  has  spread  so  widely  during  the  last  few  years.  It  is 
emphasized  by  the  desire  of  finest  elements  of  many  isolated  nationality  groups 
for  broad  and  inclusive  co-operation  in  their  districts  toward  social  welfare, 
and  by  the  spreading  notion  that  common  folk  should  be  mustered  into  the  life 
of  the  community  as  they  have  not  been  heretofore.  It  is  emphasized  by  the 
recognized  need  for  moderating  the  excessive  and  wasteful  mobility  of  city 
populations,  by  giving  more  meaning  to  locality  and  making  neighborhoods 
more  worthy  of  permanent  residence.  It  is  emphasized  by  the  fact  that  certain 
local  interests,  touching  both  the  physical  functions  and  social  aims  of  mod¬ 
ern  government,  can  be  better  understood  and  administered  locally  than  by 
the  long  range  machinery  of  a  city  government  centering  at  city  hall  and 
covering  perhaps  scores  or  hundreds  of  square  miles.  It  is  emphasized  by 
the  historical  fact  that  the  finest  architectural  embodiments  of  human  insti¬ 
tutions  and  ideals  have  for  the  most  part  been  wrought  out  by  communities 
of  limited  size,  as  ancient  Athens  and  the  cathedral  cities  of  Europe  amply 
testify. 

As  to  precisely  what  functions  would  lend  themselves  to  efficient  local 
management — possibly  the  design,  construction,  maintenance  and  adornment 
of  local  streets,  the  removal  of  household  waste,  the  provision  of  some  recreation 
factors,  especially  for  the  smallest  children,  the  receipt  of  taxes,  the  registration 


THE  NEIGHBORHOOD:  A  STUDY  OF  LOCAL  LIFE  799 


of  vital  statistics,  the  development  of  an  architectural  scheme  for  a  real  neigh¬ 
borhood  center — whether  these  are  some  of  the  functions  which  might  be 
considered  as  appropriate  for  local  management,  is  a  question  upon  which  I  do 
not  wish  now  to  enter.  Nor  need  we  now  discuss  whether  this  primary  govern¬ 
ing  area  should  comprise  one  square  mile  or  ten,  10,000  people  or  100,000. 
Cases  would  be  decided  according  to  circumstances.  Just  as  local  intelligence, 
pride,  and  initiative,  however,  are  invaluable  in  smaller  cities  for  the  purpose 
of  government,  just  as  the  value  of  these  forces  is  indicated  by  that  fear  of 
losing  them  which  leads  many  outside  communities  to  resist  annexation  to 
larger  communities — so.  I  believe,  these  forces  will,  when  given  fair  opportunity, 
demonstrate  their  value  and  efficiency  toward  limited  city  neighborhood 
government  on  a  well-considered  plan.  I  believe  that  the  proper  scope  and 
objects  of  city  planning  will  be  neither  adequately  conceived  nor  adequately 
achieved  except  through  the  application  to  the  large  city  of  some  federal 
scheme  which  will  bring  to  bear  the  potentialities  of  neighborhood  political 
areas  as  such  for  their  own  higher  physical  organization.1 

However  much  we  may  idealize  the  values  of  the  social  solidarity 
of  the  traditional  neighborhood  and  long  for  their  return,  the  fact 
remains  that  our  social  order  has  changed  profoundly  from  the 
organic  life  of  the  old  hamlet  or  village  societies.  The  seething 
movements  of  population  show  no  signs  of  abating.  Community 
life  is  ever  growing  more  mobile  and  transitory.  The  demand  for 
small  homes  or  apartments,  equipped  with  every  possible  built-in 
feature — if  not  completely  furnished — is  increasing.  The  modern 
family  is  loath  to  assume  any  responsibilities  which  may  interfere 
with  its  freedom  to  move  when  opportunity  or  occasion  arises.  It 
is  all  a  phase  of  the  dynamic  economic  and  social  order  in  which  we 
are  now  living.  With  the  change  undoubtedly  we  lose  some  of  the 
values  which  went  with  solidarity,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  we  gain 
much  through  the  very  looseness  of  the  present  social  structure. 
Perhaps  some  of  the  neighborhood  values  may  be  restored  by 
intelligent  organization,  but  there  seems  to  be  little  ground  for 
belief  that  the  dreams  of  the  more  extreme  neighborhood  promot¬ 
ers  will  ever  be  realized. 

George  E.  Hooker,  “City  Planning  and  Political  Areas,”  National  Municipal 
Review,  VI  (May,  1917),  341-42. 


HN80.C7M15 

The  neighborhood:  a  study  of  local  life 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1  1012  00025  3759 


